The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have called for immediate negotiations to establish binding international rules governing autonomous weapons, warning that the technology risks crossing a 'red line' in warfare.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday in Geneva, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric emphasized the need for clear prohibitions and restrictions on fully autonomous systems. 'We are dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,' they said. The statement urged states to move beyond incremental discussions and adopt decisive action, including a legally binding instrument.
Discussions on autonomous weapons began in 2014, but progress has stalled amid geopolitical tensions. Countries are set to meet in Geneva next week for preparatory talks ahead of a formal review conference scheduled for November. This conference, held once every five years, will assess the implementation of existing agreements, though binding norms specific to autonomous weapons remain absent.
The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, led by Carolyne Mélanie Régimbal, reiterated that some decisions—particularly those involving the taking of human life—must remain exclusively under human control. 'No decision should ever be delegated to a machine,' Régimbal stated during a press conference in Geneva.
While fully autonomous weapons are already deployed in some militaries, such as anti-missile systems on warships, their use against human targets has not been recorded. Semiautonomous AI-assisted weapons, however, have been employed in conflicts across Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Iran, and the Gulf. The application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to these systems is broadly accepted, but dedicated binding international norms are lacking.
Opposition to new legally binding instruments persists. Russia and the United States have argued that existing laws are sufficient, complicating efforts to advance formal negotiations. The Geneva talks, which require consensus to progress, face additional hurdles due to recent geopolitical strains, including European withdrawals from the landmine ban treaty amid Russian threats.
