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International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) position on autonomous weapon systems: ICRC position and background paper

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2021

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Abstract

This position paper is available in the six United Nations languages at: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-position-autonomous-weapon-systems.

Type
Reports and documents
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 102 , Issue 915: Non-State armed groups , December 2020 , pp. 1335 - 1349
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC.

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References

1 UN, Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, Geneva, 13–15 November 2019, Final report, CCW/MSP/2019/9, 13 December 2019.

2 UN, Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Commonalities in National Commentaries on Guiding Principles, CCW/GGE.1/2020/WP.1, 26 October 2020; UN, Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons System: Chairperson's Summary, CCW/GGE.1/2020/WP.7 (Advance copy), 19 April 2021.

3 ICRC, ICRC Commentary on the “Guiding Principles” of the CCW GGE on “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems”, July 2020.

4 ICRC, Statement of the ICRC to the UN CCW GGE on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 21–25 September 2020, Geneva; ICRC, ICRC Commentary on the “Guiding Principles” of the CCW GGE on “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems”, July 2020; V. Boulanin, N. Davison, N. Goussac, and M. Peldán Carlsson, Limits on Autonomy in Weapon Systems: Identifying Practical Elements of Human Control, ICRC & SIPRI, June 2020; ICRC, International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts, 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, October 2019, pp. 22–4; ICRC, Autonomy, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Technical Aspects of Human Control, August 2019; ICRC, Statements of the ICRC to the UN CCW GGE on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 25–29 March 2019, Geneva; ICRC, The Element of Human Control, working paper submitted at the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the CCW, Geneva, 21–23 November 2018, CCW/MSP/2018/WP.3, 20 November 2018; ICRC, Ethics and Autonomous Weapon Systems: An Ethical Basis for Human Control?, 3 April 2018; ICRC, Views of the ICRC on Autonomous Weapon Systems, 11 April 2016; ICRC, Autonomous Weapon Systems: Implications of Increasing Autonomy in the Critical Functions of Weapons, March 2016; ICRC, Autonomous Weapon Systems: Technical, Military, Legal and Humanitarian Aspects, March 2014.

5 UN, Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, Geneva, 13-15 November 2019, Final report, CW/MSP/2019/9, 13 December 2019.

6 ICRC, International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts, 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, October 2019, pp. 22–24.

7 V. Boulanin, N. Davison, N. Goussac and M. Peldán Carlsson, Limits on Autonomy in Weapon Systems: Identifying Practical Elements of Human Control, ICRC & SIPRI, June 2020, p. 18. See also, ICRC, Autonomous Weapon Systems: Implications of Increasing Autonomy in the Critical Functions of Weapons, March 2016, pp. 13–14.

8 ICRC, International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts, 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, October 2019, pp. 22–24.

9 ICRC, Autonomy, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Technical Aspects of Human Control, August 2019; ICRC, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Armed Conflict: A Human-Centred Approach, June 2019.

10 ICRC, Customary IHL Study, Rule 71, 2005.

11 ICRC, Ethics and Autonomous Weapon Systems: An Ethical Basis for Human Control?, 3 April 2018.

12 See V. Boulanin, N. Davison, N. Goussac and M. Peldán Carlsson, Limits on Autonomy in Weapon Systems: Identifying Practical Elements of Human Control, ICRC & SIPRI, June 2020, note 22.

13 UN Secretary-General, “Machines Capable of Taking Lives Without Human Involvement are Unacceptable, Secretary-General Tells Experts on Autonomous Weapons Systems”, SG/SM/19512-DC/3797, 25 March 2019.

14 e.g. Human Rights Watch, Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, 18 November 2012; Article 36, “Targeting People”, Policy Note, November 2019.

15 e.g., Future of Life Institute, An Open Letter to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 2017; and Future of Life Institute, Autonomous Weapons: An Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers, 2015 (4,502 artificial intelligence and robotics researchers, 26,215 other scientists and experts, and the founders and CEOs of 100 artificial intelligence and robotics companies in twenty-six countries signed open letters calling for prohibitions and regulations on AWS); Google, AI Principles, 2018.

16 V. Boulanin, N. Davison, N. Goussac and M. Peldán Carlsson, Limits on Autonomy in Weapon Systems: Identifying Practical Elements of Human Control, ICRC & SIPRI, June 2020, p. 14: “Fundamental ethical concerns do appear to be heightened in situations where AWS are used to target humans, and in situations where there are incidental risks for civilians (though such concerns could also be raised in relation to inhabited military targets, such as military aircraft, vehicles and buildings).”; ICRC, Ethics and Autonomous Weapon Systems: An Ethical Basis for Human Control?, 3 April 2018, p. 22: “The combined and interconnected ethical concerns about loss of human agency in decisions to use force, diffusion of moral responsibility and loss of human dignity could have the most far-reaching consequences, perhaps precluding the development and use of anti-personnel autonomous weapon systems, and even limiting the applications of anti-materiel systems, depending on the risks that destroying materiel targets present for human life.”

17 Art. 52 of Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions; ICRC, Customary IHL Study, Rules 7–10, 2005.

18 Lawand, K. and Robinson, I., “Development of Treaties Limiting or Prohibiting the Use of Certain Weapons: The Role of the International Committee of the Red Cross”, in Geiß, R., Zimmermann, A. and Haumer, S. (eds), Humanizing the Laws of War: The Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press, June 2017, pp. 141–84Google Scholar.