IPU, Alm.del - 2023-24 - Bilag 6: Outcomes of the 148th Assembly in Geneva

Dansk Interparlamentarisk Gruppes bestyrelse 2023-24
IPU Alm.del Bilag 6
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148th IPU Assembly

Geneva, 23–27 March 2024

Addressing the social and humanitarian impact

of autonomous weapon systems

and artificial intelligence

Resolution adopted by consensus

by the 148th IPU Assembly

(Geneva, 27 March 2024)

The 148th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Acknowledging

that, while the applications of emerging technologies open up opportunities

for the development of humanity, they may also pose significant challenges to peace and international

security and may raise new questions about the role of humans in warfare, that regulation of autonomy in

the context of weapon systems requires a holistic understanding of its effects, and that human

decision-making and control must take account of all ethical, legal, humanitarian and security

implications,

Affirming

that any discussion on autonomous weapon systems (AWS) is subject to

international law, particularly the Charter of the United Nations and international humanitarian law (IHL),

Noting

the lack of an agreed definition of autonomous weapon systems, and

recalling

the

proposal of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in which the term “autonomous

weapon systems” encompasses any weapon system with autonomy in its critical functions, which

means that it can select (i.e. search for, detect, identify or track) and attack (i.e. use force against,

neutralize, damage or destroy) targets without human intervention,

Recognizing

that the preservation of human control and judgment stands as a critical factor

in ensuring legal compliance and effectively addressing the ethical concerns that arise from the

deployment of AWS,

Gravely concerned

that AWS that have full autonomy in their critical functions could be able

to select and attack targets without human intervention,

Concerned

that the lack of control and explicit regulation at the international level around the

use of AWS could allow operators to violate international law, in particular the Charter of the United

Nations and IHL, without accountability, potentially infringing on the fundamental human rights enshrined

in national, regional and international legal frameworks, due to the absence of human judgement and

supervision and the lack of opportunities for timely intervention or mechanisms for deactivation over the

use of force,

Deeply concerned

about the possible negative consequences and impact of AWS on global

security and regional and international stability, including the risk of an emerging arms race, lowering the

threshold for conflict and proliferation, including to non-State actors, as outlined in United Nations

General Assembly resolution 78/241 on lethal autonomous weapon systems,

Concerned

that advancements in sophisticated military technologies, including artificial

intelligence (AI) and algorithmic data processing, may increase the risk of a new arms race, lowering the

threshold for conflict and proliferation, including to non-State actors, and putting peace and international

security at even greater risk, but

acknowledging

that a ban on research would be unrealistic, not least

when so much of the research in this field is conducted by both military and civilian players and AI still

has a very important role to play in civilian life,

#IPU148

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Alarmed

by the possibility that AWS have the potential to become future weapons of

mass destruction as they combine two properties unique to such weapons: mass harm and lack of

human control to ensure they do not injure civilians,

Conscious

that human rights instruments guarantee the right to life, dignity and

integrity of persons,

Deeply concerned

that AWS could be used by armed groups and other non-State

actors to undermine national, regional and global security, causing profound social and

humanitarian impact,

Alarmed

by the evidence that individual recognition algorithms, including facial

recognition and automated decision algorithms have native embedded bias that is already

propagating gender and race discrimination and perpetrating injustices against socio-economically

disadvantaged people, the vulnerable and people with disabilities, and that AWS could be

deliberately programmed to target people bearing certain “markers” or identities including race,

gender or patterns of behaviour, and to apply force without human intervention, potentially leading

to disproportionate harm to specific groups, locations or communities,

Recalling,

without prejudice to Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, the

fundamental rule under IHL according to which the right of Parties to a conflict to choose their

means and methods of warfare is not unlimited, as stated in Article 35 (1) of the Additional

Protocol I (AP I) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of victims in

international armed conflicts, and as provided for by customary international law, as well as the

obligation stated in Article 36 of AP I, which requires States to conduct reviews of the study,

development, acquisition or adoption of all new weapons, means and methods of warfare in order to

determine whether their use is prohibited by IHL or any other rule of applicable international law,

Mindful

that, for decades, the international community has been actively keeping track

of the emerging issues of AWS, marked by key milestones in AWS regulatory governance,

including the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or

Arbitrary Executions in 2010, which brought the issue of lethal autonomous robotics and the

protection of life to the international spotlight and that, since 2013, the High Contracting Parties to

the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which

May Be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW), a key IHL

instrument, have been holding discussions on the issue and, in 2016, established an open-ended

Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous

weapon systems (LAWS),

Recognizing

the GGE as a key international forum at which a framework around

LAWS is being developed,

Noting

the fact that, during its 2023 meetings, the GGE underscored the need to

anticipate technological advancements in LAWS, urging strict adherence to IHL throughout the life

cycle of these systems, highlighting the need for limitations on targets and operational parameters,

coupled with appropriate training and instructions for human operators, and firmly stating that any

LAWS-based system unable to comply with international law should not be deployed,

Acknowledging

the adoption of resolution 78/241 by the United Nations General

Assembly in December 2023, which, inter alia, requests that the Secretary-General of the United

Nations submit a substantive report on the subject reflecting the full range of views received from

Member and observer States on ways to address the related challenges and concerns such

systems raise from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives, and on the

role of humans in the use of force, and invite the views of international and regional organizations,

the ICRC, civil society, the scientific community and industry,

Recognizing

that, since 2018, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has

consistently maintained that AWS are politically unacceptable and morally repugnant and has

called for their prohibition under international law, and that when presenting his

New Agenda for

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Peace

ahead of the Summit of the Future in 2024, he further called on States to adopt by 2026 a

legally binding instrument to prohibit AWS that function without human control or oversight and to

regulate all other types of AWS,

Recognizing also

that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,

summary or arbitrary executions, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons

with disabilities, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, the

United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, the ICRC, civil society,

including through the Stop Killer Robots Campaign, the scientific community, and academia have

joined the call by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for a global prohibition on AWS,

Noting

that the landmark joint appeal made in 2023 by the United Nations

Secretary-General and the President of the ICRC underlined the urgency for States to negotiate a

new, binding international law on AWS to set clear prohibitions and restrictions on AWS by 2026,

Mindful

that many States and groups of countries have already been calling for the

establishment of a legally binding instrument to regulate, limit and/or prohibit the use of AWS, and,

at the same time,

cognisant

of the need for a unanimous decision, i.e. that all States agree to follow

the proposed limitations,

Recognizing

that urgent, concrete action is needed to develop international

approaches, particularly given that weapon systems with varying degrees of autonomy have

already been used in various conflicts,

Considering

the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations, international human rights law, and IHL and its founding principles of humanity, dictates of

public conscience and ethical perspectives,

Reaffirming

that, because IHL requires commanders and the users of weapons to be

able to anticipate and limit their effects, weapon systems must be predictable, and that the potential

“black box” effect arising from the integration of AI technologies could hinder compliance with these

obligations,

Gravely concerned

that the longer States wait to regulate AWS, the more likely the

flow and proliferation of such systems will continue on the market,

Stressing

the need to study an international regulatory framework for the use of AI to

regulate the harmful use of this technology,

Highlighting

that parliaments will have a significant role to play in raising awareness on

the social, humanitarian, legal and ethical implications of the use of AWS, and in supporting

governments with inputs to draft the text for an instrument to regulate such systems,

Urges

parliaments and parliamentarians to actively and urgently engage in the debate

to address the threat to peace and security posed by AWS;

Strongly urges

parliaments to develop comprehensive national legislation to establish

regulatory frameworks governing the development, deployment and use of AWS, once

international agreement has been reached on a definition of “autonomous weapon

system” and on the distinction between full and partial autonomy as well as consensus

on the use and content of the term “meaningful human control”, taking

into account all

their ethical, legal, humanitarian and security implications and

including the prohibition

of AWS that function without human control or oversight, and which cannot be used in

compliance with IHL;

Calls on

parliaments to urge their governments to continue working through

international forums, including the United Nations and the GGE, on an instrument,

governance framework and regulations on autonomy in weapon systems, to ensure

compliance with international law, including IHL, and ethical perspectives, as well as

the prevention of the peace and security impact that autonomy in weapon systems

entails;

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Suggests

that parliaments encourage their governments to share their views with the

Secretary-General of the United Nations on ways to address challenges and concerns

raised by AWS in accordance with resolution 78/241 adopted by the United Nations

General Assembly in December 2023 and

A New Agenda for Peace,

which

recommends multilateral efforts for a legally binding instrument on LAWS and other

types of AWS by 2026;

Recommends

that parliaments and parliamentarians work with relevant stakeholders,

including the defence industry, civil society and academia, to understand, evaluate

and create safeguards in relation to both AI and AWS, including weapon system

designers, particularly regarding their compliance with existing law and with any

developments to the law that may occur in the future;

Encourages

parliaments to regularly assess and evaluate the application of new

technologies, to avoid these technologies creating a unilateral pressure on all citizens

that grants disproportionate powers to the parties when operating without proper

oversight, and to address the risks posed by facial recognition systems, including

hardware, software and algorithms, including to prevent gender and racial bias, that

may be integrated into AWS;

Urges

parliaments and parliamentarians to play a crucial role in holding governments

accountable regarding AWS, in ensuring quality in their governance, notably regarding

the imperative of retaining human control over the use of force, and transparency in

their design, development, operation, regulation and oversight, and in triggering

concrete action by governments and societies more broadly;

Calls on

parliaments to encourage governments to engage actively in the ongoing

discussions on LAWS at the GGE and to take all necessary efforts to support the

GGE’s work;

Also calls on

parliaments to strongly urge their governments to establish robust

frameworks for data protection to govern the development, deployment and use of

AWS, emphasizing the critical importance of safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring

ethical and responsible use of information;

Urges

parliaments to ensure the establishment of effective mechanisms to conduct

investigations, prosecution and punishment for violations of IHL arising from the use of

weapons with autonomous functionalities, thereby upholding individual responsibilities

and ensuring accountability for any breaches of ethical and legal standards;

Also urges

parliaments to request that their governments clearly define their own

responsibilities and those of the private sector and civil society with regard to AWS,

and adopt legislation that incorporates regulatory frameworks and safeguards to

ensure that such systems do not fall into criminal hands or into the hands of non-State

actors that operate outside the law, and that such laws are fully in line with

international human rights obligations;

Encourages

parliaments and parliamentarians to stimulate exchange of relevant good

practices between States, with due regard for national security regulations and

commercial restrictions on private information;

Recommends

that parliaments and parliamentarians: (a) allocate budgets to fund

plans, programmes, projects and actions to raise awareness of the need to prevent,

regulate, monitor and enforce human rights and safeguards related to AWS;

(b) advocate for the incorporation of comprehensive educational programmes on AI

and autonomous systems within national curricula at appropriate educational levels to

promote widespread understanding of both the potential benefits and the risks

associated with these technologies, including their ethical, legal, humanitarian and

security implications;

10.

11.

12.

13.

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14.

Calls for

the adoption of measures to ensure the inclusion of a gender and

intersectional perspective based on United Nations Security Council resolution 1325

(2000), in discussions of AWS and military AI strategies;

Calls on

relevant parliamentary networks and IPU permanent observers to include

AWS on their agendas and to inform the IPU of their work and findings on the issue;

Invites

the IPU, through its relevant Standing Committee and specialized bodies, to keep

abreast of the issue and organize at the 151st Assembly a panel discussion, inviting

relevant parliamentary networks and IPU permanent observers to participate, aimed at

taking stock of the situation in advance of the 2026 deadline set by the

Secretary-General of the United Nations to adopt a legally binding instrument on AWS;

Suggests

that the IPU Secretariat compile and analyse a set of parliamentary good

practices and stocktaking related to the use of AI in the security and military sectors and

derived from the discussion within the IPU framework and other subsequent IPU

activities, including measures to remove bias in the algorithms that underpin AI systems

that are capable of autonomous analysis and actions;

Urges

the Secretary General of the IPU to share the present resolution and further

reports and publications related to AWS with the Secretary-General of the United

Nations for inclusion in the report mentioned in resolution 78/241 adopted by the

United Nations General Assembly in December 2023;

Invites

the IPU to regularly hold sessions for parliamentarians to discuss the latest

developments with AWS and AI and reassess their impacts in the military domain,

particularly with regard to specific concerns on human rights violations, meaningful

human control over the use of force and the ethical implications of these technologies;

Encourages

parliaments to implement their strategies to exercise more effective

parliamentary oversight functions and ensure that technological development, such as

AI, is only deployed to assist humans in certain tasks, without compromising

meaningful human control and intervention whenever it is needed.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

India, Iran (Islamic Republic of)

and the

Russian Federation

expressed their opposition to the entire

text of the resolution.

China

and

Lithuania

expressed a reservation on the entire text of the resolution.

Australia, New Zealand

and the

United Kingdom

expressed reservations on several paragraphs.

Cuba

and

France

expressed a reservation on the use of the term “autonomous weapon systems (AWS)”

without mentioning the characteristic of lethality (i.e. lethal autonomous weapon system – LAWS).

Türkiye

expressed reservations on preambular paragraphs 13, 17, 18, 20 and 21, and operative

paragraphs 2, 4 and 16.

Republic of Korea

expressed reservations on preambular paragraphs 18 and 19, and operative

paragraph 16.

Canada

expressed reservations on preambular paragraph 3 and operative paragraph 2 on the grounds

that they are too prescriptive for national governments.