The Campaign to Fight Killer Robots
In December 2012, WILPF joined in the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. We share the growing concerns about the development of fully autonomous weapons—weapons that will completely remove any human intervention in the decision-making.
WILPF is not only a member of this campaign, but also on the campaign’s leadership body, where the Reaching Critical Will staff represents our organisation. The campaign was officially launched in April 2013 in London, with an NGO conference, a press conference and a briefing in the UK parliament. It was a very successful event. Since that time, WILPF organized a side event during the Human Rights Council in Geneva in May as the Special Rapporteur (a title given to individuals working on behalf of various regional and international organizations who bear specific mandates to investigate, monitor and recommend solutions to specific human rights problems) on extrajudicialsummary or arbitrary executions, which raised serious concerns about these fully autonomous weapons and called for a moratorium. You can read more about the Campaign on its website and you can read about our events in Geneva on the Reaching Critical Will website.
The campaign is moving forward fast, and there’s a large interest from media and the public about these issues.
We want to remind you that WILPF is already engaged in this campaign as an organization so there is no need for individual WILPF sections to sign up for the campaign. If you want to get more involved in the campaign and receive information, please email Beatrice Fihn, Programme Manager-Reaching Critical Will, at beatrice@reachingcriticalwill.org. We will continue to keep WILPF sections updated through our newsletter. Please email Beatrice to be added to the campaign’s newsletter and mailing list, or subscribe here.
For more information, please see:
- Launch Statement by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, April 23, 2013
- Statements by members of Human Rights WatchArticle 36Mines Action CanadaFacing Finance (Germany), IKV PAX Christi (The Netherlands), Peace Movement Aotearoa (New Zealand), Sehlac (Latin America)
- Opinion pieces by Pugwash president, Amb, Jayathana Dhanapala; International Committee for Robot Arms Control members Noel SharkleyMatthew BoltonIllan Nourbaksh
- Media coverage: AFPBBCBBC’s Zeinab Badawi (Canada), CNETIPSMashableMetroNBCReutersRussia TodaySky NewsTech NewsUPIWired
- Photographs of the NGO Conference and Launch Events
- Storify by Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and Human Rights Watch
- Playlists of media coverage and launch footage on YouTube
Photo: Beatrice Fihn at the NGO Conference on the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Photo courtesy of Reaching Critical Will
