Human Rights Watch urges states to start negotiating a killer-robots treaty after UN General Assembly meeting

Human Rights Watch said on May 21, 2025, from New York, that international momentum to prohibit and regulate so-called killer robots appears to be growing, pointing to wide attendance at the first UN General Assembly meeting on autonomous weapons systems. Held on May 12-13, 2025, it drew officials from 96 countries plus UN agencies, nongovernmental groups and the Red Cross committee (ICRC). The organization urged states to commit to opening treaty negotiations this year.

Mary Wareham, its deputy crisis, conflict and arms director, said dozens of states voiced grave concern over removing human control from weapons. The group explains that such systems, once activated, use sensor data to identify a target and then fire without human approval, so a machine decides where, when and against what force is used. Many states called for a new treaty, most favoring a strict ban on unpredictable systems. UN Secretary-General Guterres and ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger repeated their call for a legally binding instrument by 2026. More than 120 countries back negotiating a treaty, which the ICRC and others say should ban systems operating without meaningful human control or targeting people.

The meeting stemmed from a General Assembly resolution of December 2, 2024, adopted by 166 votes to 3 with 15 abstentions. Talks under the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva since 2014 have produced no substantive outcome, which the group attributes to consensus decision-making that a few major military powers, including India and Russia, have exploited to block negotiation proposals. It sees the General Assembly as more inclusive.

The organization and a human rights clinic at Harvard Law School distributed a report, A Hazard to Human Rights, arguing these systems violate rights in peace and war. States including Algeria, El Salvador and Ireland stressed the right to life.