The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that aims to preemptively ban lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) and thereby ‘retain meaningful human control over the use of force’. It launched in 2012 and is now a group of 150 international, regional, and NGOs in 63 countries.
The coalition engages in various awareness-raising, advocacy, and lobbying activities such as (a) calling on governments to outlaw LAWS; (b) producing materials such as images and videos; and (c) collecting signatures for a public pledge to ‘not participate nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons.’ The campaign has sent delegations to the meetings of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of LAWS. It organises side events to the meetings of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security and issues statements on these occasions. The coalition also writes letters to governments and technological companies and calls on individuals to donate money to the campaign, contact their governments directly, share relevant information, and participate in events.
Members of the steering committee include Amnesty International, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Pax Christi International, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Academic partners include the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic, the Center for International Political Studies (CEPI), the Institute of International Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia), and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law’s New Technologies Law Clinic.
- Seeks to ‘retain meaningful human control over targeting and attack decisions by prohibiting development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons.’ Such a ban must be legislated through national laws and by international treaty.