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Legislation for common-law States on the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects and on its Protocols.

Armed conflicts are increasingly taking place in urban and other populated areas, often with weapons designed to deliver large explosive force from afar and over large areas. When used in populated areas, explosive weapons with a wide impact area are very likely to have indiscriminate effects. They are a major cause of harm to civilians and disruption to services essential for

Mr President,Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,It is an honour to representthe International Committee of the Red Cross in this important multilateral forum, and to contribute to our meaningful collective efforts to advance nuclear disarmament.We are here with a common goal: to eliminate nuclear weapons, one of the biggest threats to humanity.We are here because a determined

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs published a collection of articles: "Perspectives on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems"

The ICRC welcomes this first meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts on "Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems".

Autonomous weapons are an emotive subject, with the potential to change the whole nature of warfare.Could machines one day be able to carry out killing without human control and what should we do about the legal and moral implications of that possibility?A five-day long conference in Geneva has been looking at just such issues. Kathleen Lawand, Head of the ICRC's arms unit and

Should a weapon system be able to make its own “decision” about who to kill?

As a contribution to ongoing discussions in the CCW, this paper highlights some of the key issues on autonomous weapon systems from the perspective of the ICRC, and in the light of discussions at its recent expert meeting.

A challenge to human control over the use of force. Technological advances in weaponry mean that decisions about the use of force on the battlefield could increasingly be taken by machines operating without human intervention. Here, we examine the potential implications of such a profound change in the way war is waged, and caution against the use of such weapons unless

The ICRC and ERCS are planning to scale up these lifesaving activities in contaminated and hard-to-reach areas in Amhara and Afar in the coming months to enable communities to protect themselves against the threat of unexploded remnants of weapon explosion accidents.