A push to begin negotiations on legally binding rules for autonomous weapons faces opposition from Russia, the United States and other countries ahead of a United Nations arms-control conference in Geneva this month. The dispute centres on whether governments will commit to drafting an agreement within a fixed timetable or continue discussions without a binding outcome.
The Guardian reported that Russia, the US and Israel are among the countries resisting a timetable for negotiating a legal instrument. The seventh review conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, scheduled for 16–20 November, is expected to bring together 128 countries. A diplomatic retreat beginning on Friday will provide an early indication of the positions governments intend to take.
The proposed negotiating mandate would move the process beyond discussions of principles and toward drafting enforceable international obligations. On 22 October, a coalition of 50 states, including Ireland, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, France and Germany, called for the conference to approve a tightly defined negotiating process. The International Committee of the Red Cross has separately said that more than 70 states support opening negotiations on a legal instrument.
The Ireland-led proposal would establish a time-limited expert group to negotiate rules during three sessions in Geneva in 2027, with 25 meeting days in total. The group would then submit a report containing a draft protocol to the convention’s annual meeting later that year. Approval this month would therefore launch negotiations rather than immediately establish a treaty.
Autonomous weapons are distinguished by their ability to carry out critical targeting functions without referring individual decisions to a person. The expert working group preparing material for the conference described systems able to identify, select and engage targets without human referral. That is a narrower category than military AI generally, which can also include software used to analyse intelligence or assist human decision-making.
A September report by UN experts supported retaining human judgment and control over such weapons and placing limits on the scope of their operation. France welcomed those proposals as a foundation for negotiations, supporting a ban on fully autonomous weapons alongside regulation of weapons with autonomous functions.
The US position largely favours national controls operating within existing international humanitarian law. The UK, which did not join the Ireland-led statement, has previously maintained that existing humanitarian law provides a sufficient basis for regulating these weapons. Such law already governs the conduct of hostilities, including obligations to distinguish civilians from military targets; the diplomatic disagreement concerns whether additional, technology-specific prohibitions and restrictions are needed.
Human Rights Watch and Stop Killer Robots argue that unpredictable behaviour in AI-assisted weapons can increase the danger of lethal mistakes and weaken human control over combat. The ICRC has urged governments to move from discussion to negotiation. Pope Leo XIV has also called for effective human oversight of decisions involving life and the use of force, encouraging states meeting in Geneva to take steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons.
Anna Hehir, head of military AI governance at the Future of Life Institute, said governments had already agreed by consensus on elements that could underpin treaty negotiations. She warned that further work focused on voluntary measures could delay binding restrictions. The immediate decision in Geneva is whether that preparatory work will become a scheduled negotiating process, with a draft protocol due in 2027.
Sources: The Guardian – AI