UN Talks on Killer Robots ends with Calls for Negotiations Growing

Click to expand Image © 2025 Brian Stauffer for Human Rights Watch In the early hours of September 5, a UN disarmament meeting in Geneva concluded three years of work on autonomous weapons systems, colloquially known as killer robots. While the final report was significantly watered down, it left the door open for more concrete action in November, with a record number of states now supporting negotiations on legally binding rules. The stakes could not be higher, given growing reports that autonomous weapons are already being deployed on the battlefield. These systems, which select and engage targets without human intervention, pose a host of legal, ethical, accountability, and security concerns. During the final session of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, many states demonstrated a commitment to complete their mandate—to develop a “set of elements of an instrument”—and advance toward negotiations of a legally binding instrument, which would govern the use of autonomous weapons. In total, 76 states have now expressed their support for moving to negotiations. As reported by Stop Killer Robots, 70 of