The key facts
- Volker Türk urged the urgent adoption of binding international rules on autonomous weapons
- He proposed banning systems that target humans 'by design or in practice'
- Türk demanded preserving human control over every use of force
Three priorities ahead of the discussions
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday urged states to urgently agree on legally binding international rules governing autonomous weapons, warning that machines must never decide whether 'a human being will live or die'. The appeal was delivered in a video message published on the X platform, ahead of discussions on lethal autonomous weapons scheduled for next week.
A ban and human control
Türk set out three priorities for governments. The first is to urgently adopt binding international norms governing autonomous weapons and protecting lives, 'before it is too late'. The second is to ban autonomous systems that target humans 'by design or in practice'; he called machines' decisions about a human life 'the ultimate form of humiliation' and 'a red line we must never cross'. The third priority is to keep humans in control: human judgment must determine every use of force, including in armed conflict and law enforcement.
Accountability for violations
According to the High Commissioner, decisions and actions must be traceable to a specific individual, and responsibility for violations must rest with those who designed, deployed or used such systems. The statement emphasizes that this is specifically a call to states: binding rules have not yet been adopted, and their agreement remains the subject of the upcoming discussions.
