RENEWED CALL FROM THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS TO ADOPT RULES ON AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS

Geneva, 25 August 2026

In a joint appeal today, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, renew their call for States to urgently adopt new international rules on autonomous weapons systems.

Three years ago, we called on States to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems. Today, we renew this call with even greater urgency. The fundamental concerns remain unchanged, but the risks have intensified. We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines.

The development of weapon technology has advanced at record speed, placing increasing strain on legal frameworks. Since our previous appeal, the gap between technological capability and regulatory constraint has widened, with advanced technologies employed on the battlefield amplifying the risk of harming civilians and civilian infrastructure and aggravating civilian suffering in armed conflict.

The development and use of autonomous weapon systems represent a further escalation, reducing human control over the use of force. Autonomous weapon systems are not part of a distant future - a race towards greater autonomy in weapons systems is already well underway. At the same time, scientists and engineers developing these systems have themselves raised the alarm. When the architects of this technology are calling for limits, States cannot afford to remain passive.

This year must mark a turning point.

States have laid important groundwork through the United Nations General Assembly and the Group of Governmental Experts under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Significant progress has been made toward a shared understanding of the human judgment and control required, and of the measures necessary to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, address ethical concerns, and reduce human suffering.

States must show political courage and move beyond incremental discussions towards decisive action. Negotiations must begin now to urgently adopt a legally binding instrument to regulate autonomous weapon systems with clear prohibitions and restrictions. A failure to act quickly and decisively will cost lives. It will leave future generations to inherit a world in which the absence of clear and specific prohibitions and restrictions on these weapons opens the door to practices that would erode the protections international humanitarian law is meant to guarantee. A world where accountability is increasingly elusive as responsibility for errors and breaches of applicable rules becomes harder to establish.
States have a responsibility to those already suffering the consequences of today's conflicts, and to those who will inherit the world that is now being shaped. Future generations will ask whether leaders acted when there was still a chance to set limits before these weapons proliferated beyond control. The upcoming Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in November offers the clearest path available for States to decide to move to negotiate a legally binding instrument. The painstaking work undertaken over the past three years forms the ideal basis for such negotiations, and must not be lost.

We urge States to seize this moment.

Continuing to design weapon systems that make it easier to wage war will only undermine our collective efforts towards a more peaceful world.

The path is clear. The need is urgent. Innovation must serve humanity - not endanger it.

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