UNITED NATIONS – Pakistan has called for regulating the introduction ofLethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS), known as “killer robots”, whichare capable of making their own combat decisions without humanintervention, saying such devices would undermine world peace.
“Any weapon system that delegates life and death decisions to machines isby nature unethical and cannot fully comply with IHL (InternationalHumanitarian Law),” Pakistan’s delegate Husham Ahmed told the GeneralAssembly’s First Committee, which deals with disarmament and internationalsecurity matters.
Their introduction, he said, would lower the threshold of armed conflictsand would affect progress on disarmament and non-proliferation.
“The issue of LAWS does not only have legal, ethical and technicaldimensions, but also carries serious implications for regional and globalsecurity, ” Husham Ahmed, who is a director in the foreign ministry, saidin a debate on Disarmament Measures and International Security.
“Pakistan, therefore, supports the development of an international legallybinding instrument stipulating appropriate prohibitions and regulations onLAWS,” he added.
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States can address the issue within the framework of the Convention onCertain Conventional Weapons or the United Nations disarmament machinery,including the Conference on Disarmament, the Pakistani delegate said.
As for cyber warfare, he said most States participating in the relatedOpen-Ended Working Group agree that the Internet must be regulated and thatthere is a need for having common but differentiated responsibilities inmaking the global network safe and secure.
Additional norms must be developed, he said, adding that the Conference onDisarmament remains an appropriate venue for further multilateral work onthis topic.
