WILPF Submission to the UN Secretary-General’s Report on Autonomous Weapon Systems

Pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 78/241, WILPF made a submission to the UN Secretary-General’s report on autonomous weapon systems.

In 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 78/241, which requested the UN Secretary-General to seek the views of states, international organisations, and civil society on autonomous weapon systems (AWS) for a report to be published in 2024. WILPF made a submission to this report that consolidates more in-depth analysis from Reaching Critical Will’s papers on AWS. WILPF's submission contains concerns in relation to international peace and security, war profiteering and global asymmetries, and human rights abuses.

Based on these concerns, the submission recommends that states negotiate a legally binding international treaty to prohibit the development, production, and use of AWS; that technology companies, tech workers, scientists, engineers, academics, and others involved in developing AI or robotics should pledge to never contribute to the development of AWS; and that financial institutions such as banks and pension funds should pledge not to invest money in the development or manufacture of autonomous weapon systems. WILPF further recommends that states, civil society groups, activists, tech workers, and others should also work to prevent AI-enabled technologies from being used by militaries and police forces. It is not just AWS that are problematic, but the overall automation of violence, as well as sensor-derived target detection, algorithmic bias and software-generated kill lists. These must not be normalised, they must be prevented. As the submission notes, AWS are a product of an arms race that derives from the global system of militarism and war profiteering. This system fuels armed conflict and armed violence, human rights abuses, and other violations of international law. It is therefore important to not just ban AWS, but to dismantle the structures of state violence as a whole.

Written by Ray Acheson • Published May 2024 by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

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