Last October, great progress was made towards a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons! States voted at the United Nations General Assembly First Committee to task the UN Secretary General to "seek the views of Member States and observer States on lethal autonomous weapons systems, inter alia, on ways to address the related challenges and concerns they raise from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives and on the role of humans in the use of force, and to submit a substantive report reflecting the full range of views received with an annex containing these views, to the General Assembly."

This is a key step towards a treaty and this spring, UN Member States and observer States were asked to submit written input into the report.

Civil society also had the opportunity to submit their views. Mines Action Canada and Norwegian People's Aid saw this as a great opportunity to share our concerns on autonomous weapons systems. Together, we drafted a submission which has now been published by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs. In our submission, we drew on our experience with landmines to demonstrate how killer robots would pose similar risks. 

To read the full submission and learn more about the dangers of autonomous weapons and their connection to landmines, click here!

We will share the UN Secretary General's report which will includes all the submitted views when it is published this summer!