Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council, Volker Turk stated he was “horrified by reports that fully autonomous drones launched by the Russian Federation last month killed three Ukrainians.”
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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also drew attention to reports that Ukraine “tested such weapons in real conditions.”
The New York Times reported last month that a fully AI-controlled Russian drone killed three civilians on July 6 in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine.
The report found that although operators had programmed the drone to fly towards a specific gas station, its actual target, likely propane tanks, was chosen without human intervention.
International organizations and NGOs are increasing pressure to regulate so-called lethal autonomous weapons, often referred to as “killer robots.”
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Last month, UN chief Antonio Guterres and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Mirjana Spoljaric issued a joint call to curb such weapons and warned that the world is “dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: autonomous targeting of humans carried out by machines.”
“I join calls for an urgent ban on weapons capable of taking life without human intervention,” Turk said on Monday.
After years of discussions, 128 countries agreed on Saturday at the UN on a definition of autonomous weapons, although NGOs accused especially the US and Russia of trying to soften the agreed text.
In November, countries are expected to decide whether to start full negotiations on a treaty regulating autonomous weapons.
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