Why Christians Should Lead the Ban on Killer Robots

The Story: A new report highlights the attempts to ban “killer robots.” Here’s why Christians should be leading that effort.

The Background: In 2013, the international non-governmental organization Human Right Watch (HRW) helped launch the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to “ban fully autonomous weapons and thereby retain meaningful human control over the use of force.” HRW has previously been effective in leading campaigns against weapons of warfare, having shared in the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and having played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.

This week HRW released a 55-page report, “Stopping Killer Robots: Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control,” which reviews the policies of the 97 countries that have publicly elaborated their views on killer robots since 2013.

About 30 countries have called for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), colloquially known as “killer robots.” However, a small number of countries—most notably the United States and Russia—have blocked efforts to regulate such weapons systems. Read More