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Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) : Meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) : 11-15 April 2016, Geneva : views of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on autonomous weapon system

ICRC

[Geneva] : ICRC, 2016

6 p. ; 30 cm

English

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Views on autonomous weapon systems, including those of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), continue to evolve as a better understanding is gained of current and potential technological capabilities, the military purpose of autonomy in weapon systems, and the resulting questions for compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and ethical acceptability. Expert discussions of the last three years in the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and in meetings convened by the ICRC and other organisations have been crucial to enhancing this understanding. The ICRC held a second expert meeting on ‘Autonomous weapon systems: Implications of increasing autonomy in the critical functions of weapons’ from 15-16 March 2016 in Versoix, Switzerland. The ICRC will soon publish a summary report of the meeting. In the meantime, as a contribution to ongoing discussions in the CCW, this paper highlights some of the key issues on autonomous weapon systems from the perspective of the ICRC, and in the light of discussions at its recent expert meeting.

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