Statement by the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mrs. Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, at the Latin American and Caribbean Conference on the Social and Humanitarian Impact of Autonomous Weapons, San Jose, Costa Rica, 23-24. February 2023.
Dear First Vice-President, Dear Minister,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The International Committee of the Red Cross is encouraged by this meeting of Latin American and Caribbean countries to address one of the most troubling humanitarian concerns for the future of armed conflict.
The unrestricted use of autonomous weapons carries the risk of losing control over the use of force. It could cause serious harm to civilians and those who are no longer fighting, and undermine the ability of those who are fighting to comply with the rules and limitations of international humanitarian law.
How will civilians or wounded soldiers be protected when the gun users no longer control who they kill or what they destroy?
There is also the fundamental challenge that autonomous weapons pose to our values, to our common humanity. Should we tolerate a world in which conscious decisions about human life are replaced by machine calculations? Are we willing to accept the use of self-firing weapons activated by self-programming artificial intelligence software?
Autonomous weapons in conflict are no longer a question of tomorrow. These issues are now an urgent humanitarian priority, and States must act now to address them by negotiating new legally binding international norms.
In particular, such regulations should prohibit unpredictable autonomous weapons and autonomous weapons intended or used to attack humans directly. For other autonomous weapons, these standards should include strict limitations on their development and use.
Despite the lack of progress after nine years of discussions in Geneva on the Convention on Certain Conventional Arms Convention, the majority of states, including many in the region, have expressed support for the creation of legally binding standards.
What is needed now is principled political leadership to translate these national commitments into swift international action, and this is where I believe Latin American and Caribbean countries have an important role to play.
Many of you have played an integral role in humanitarian processes to enact the necessary bans and restrictions on weapons and transfers, such as: B. the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Arms Trade. They helped ensure that the ban on cluster munitions was not undermined by the adoption of weaker rules in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
The ICRC is confident that you will now help identify ways to deliver an effective international response to autonomous weapons that responds to the serious humanitarian concerns they raise.
I wish you the best for this important conference and I urge you to endorse a firm regional commitment by Latin American and Caribbean countries to negotiate and adopt a new legally binding Autonomous Weapons Instrument.
Thanks very much.