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Human Rights Watch: ‘Now is not the time for countries to tinker with flawed political declarations’

For years NGO giant Human Rights Watch has been one of the leading voices advocating in favor of an international treaty on autonomous weapons systems. In the past, the organization blamed the U.S, Russia, China, and India, for playing an outsized role in derailing treaty talks supported by dozens of smaller nations. On the surface then, one might think HRW would respond favorably to the U.S. new political declaration. Instead, the organization said it effort fell flat.

“Now is not the time for countries to tinker with flawed political declarations that pave the way for a future of automated killing,” Human Rights Watch Arms Advocacy Director Mary Wareham said in a statement. “To protect humanity, US [sic] help negotiate new international law to prohibit and restrict autonomous weapons systems.”

That skepticisms came just days after HRW released a lengthy report railing against a new U.S. Department of Defense directive on AI weapons which it criticized as an “inadequate response” to the threats posed by the tech. That proposal, the agency said, was “out of step” with widely supported international proposals for treaties prohibiting and regulating autonomous weapons systems.

“The US pursuit of autonomous weapons systems without binding legal rules to explicitly address the dangers is a recipe for disaster,” Wareham said. “National policy and legislation are urgently needed to address the risks and challenges raised by removing human control from the use of force.”

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