View previous stories
	Autonomous weapons systems pose grave risks to human rights during both war and peacetime by Human Rights Watch, agencies   Apr. 2025   Autonomous weapons systems pose grave risks to human rights during both war and peacetime, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Governments should tackle the concerns raised by such weapons systems, known as “killer robots,” by negotiating a multinational treaty to address the dangers.   The 61-page report, “A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making,” finds that autonomous weapons, which select and apply force to targets based on sensor rather human inputs, would contravene the rights to life, peaceful assembly, privacy, and remedy as well as the principles of human dignity and non-discrimination. Technological advances and military investments are now spurring the rapid development of autonomous weapons systems that would operate without meaningful human control.   “The use of autonomous weapons systems will not be limited to war, but will extend to law enforcement operations, border control, and other circumstances, raising serious concerns under international human rights law,” said Bonnie Docherty, senior arms adviser at Human Rights Watch, lecturer on law at Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, and lead author of the report. “To avoid a future of automated killing, governments should seize every opportunity to work toward the goal of adopting a global treaty on autonomous weapons systems.”   The report, co-published with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, was issued ahead of the first United Nations General Assembly meeting on autonomous weapons systems in New York on May 12 to 13, 2025.   Weapons systems with varying degrees of autonomy have existed for years, but the types of targets, duration of operation, geographical scope, and environment in which they operate have been limited. They include missile defense systems, armed drones, and loitering munitions.   Autonomous weapons systems operating without meaningful human control would, once activated, rely on software, often using algorithms, input from sensors like cameras, radar signatures, and heat shapes, and other data, to identify a target. After finding a target, they would fire or release their payload without the need for approval or review by a human operator. That means a machine rather than a human would determine where, when, and against what force is applied.   Autonomous weapons systems would lack the ability to interpret complex situations and to accurately approximate human judgment and emotion, elements that are essential to lawfully using force under the rights to life and peaceful assembly.   Contrary to fundamental human rights principles, the weapons systems would be incapable of valuing human life in a way that is required to respect an individual’s dignity. In addition, systems relying on artificial intelligence would most likely be discriminatory due to developers’ biases and the inherent lack of transparency of machine learning.   Autonomous weapons systems would also violate human rights throughout their life cycle, not just at the time of use. The mass surveillance necessary for their development and training would undermine the right to privacy. The accountability gap of these black-box systems would infringe upon the right to a remedy for harm after an attack.   “Human beings, whether soldiers or police officers, often egregiously violate human rights, but it would be worse to replace them with machines,” Docherty said. “While people have the ability to uphold human rights, machines do not have the capacity to comply or to understand the consequences of their actions.”   Christof Heyns, the late UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, was the first UN official to raise the alarm about autonomous weapons systems in his 2013 report to the UN Human Rights Council. “A Hazard to Human Rights” charts how the UN secretary-general and numerous UN bodies and experts have stressed that the use of autonomous weapons systems would pose threats to international human rights law, and some have argued they should be prohibited.   More than 120 countries are now on record calling for the adoption of a new international treaty on autonomous weapons systems. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, have urged states to “act now to preserve human control over the use of force” by negotiating by 2026 a legally binding instrument with prohibitions and regulations for autonomous weapons systems.   Most treaty proponents have called for prohibitions on autonomous weapons systems that by their nature operate without meaningful human control or systems that target people, as well as for regulations that ensure all other autonomous weapons systems cannot be used without meaningful human control.   The upcoming UN meeting was mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems that was adopted on December 2, 2024, by a vote of 166 in favor, 3 opposed (Belarus, North Korea, and Russia), and 15 abstentions.   Countries have discussed lethal autonomous weapons systems at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings in Geneva since May 2014, but with no substantive outcome. The main reason for the lack of progress under the CCW is that its member countries rely on a consensus approach to decision-making, which means a single country can reject a proposal, even if every other country agrees to it. A handful of major military powers investing in autonomous weapons systems have exploited this process to repeatedly block proposals to negotiate a legally binding instrument.   “Negotiations for a treaty on autonomous weapons systems should take place in a forum characterized by a common purpose, voting-based decision-making, clear and ambitious deadlines, and a commitment to inclusivity,” Docherty said.   * Human Rights Watch is a cofounder of Stop Killer Robots, which calls for a new international treaty to prohibit and regulate autonomous weapons systems. The coalition of more than 270 nongovernmental organizations in 70 countries supports the development of legal and other norms that ensure meaningful human control over the use of force, counter digital dehumanization, and reduce automated harm.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/28/killer-robots-threaten-human-rights-during-war-peace http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/21/un-start-talks-treaty-ban-killer-robots http://www.stopkillerrobots.org/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/06/enabling-machines-make-life-death-decisions-morally-unjustifiable http://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2025-05-12/secretary-generals-video-message-the-informal-consultations-lethal-autonomous-weapons-systems http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163891 http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/preserving-human-control-over-use-force-call-regulate-lethal-autonomous-weapon-systems http://futureoflife.org/project/autonomous-weapons-systems/ http://www.passblue.com/2025/05/14/can-a-treaty-controlling-killer-robots-soon-see-the-light-of-day-experts-hope-so/ Visit the related web page
	Fair and effective tax policies needed to advance equality by UN Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights   28 Feb. 2025   The UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights today called on States parties to design and implement their tax policies to promote economic, social and cultural rights and reduce high levels of inequality.   In a statement issued today, the Committee, emphasized that sound fiscal policies, including both the mobilization of sufficient resources and adequate social spending, are essential to realize economic, social and cultural rights.   “Taxation is a key instrument for mobilizing resources to implement economic, social and cultural rights and to address poverty and socio-economic inequalities.”   At domestic level, the Committee identified situations where regressive ineffective tax policies hamper the capacity of States parties to fulfil economic, social and cultural rights. “One such example is a tax policy that maintains low personal and corporate income taxes without adequately addressing high income inequalities.”   It also highlighted the negative impacts of consumption taxes such as value-added tax (VAT). “VAT can have adverse impacts on disadvantaged groups such as low-income families and single parent households, who typically spend a higher percentage of their income on everyday goods and services.”   The Committee called on governments to shift towards more equitable tax structures, from relying on indirect taxes to a more direct income taxation approach, to ensure that high-income and wealth groups and large corporations contribute their fair share to national revenue.   A well-designed tax system, the Committee observed, should not only generate sufficient public revenue but also serve as a tool for reducing socio-economic inequalities.   It called for comprehensive assessments of the impact of existing and proposed tax policies through transparent, evidence-based processes, ensuring that taxation fosters rather than hinders economic, social and cultural rights.   These assessments shall include the overall distributional impact and the tax burden on different income groups, women, and other disadvantaged groups, and the benefits and impact of various tax exemptions, including those related to natural resources.   At the international level, the Committee welcomed General Assembly Resolution 78/230, which lays the groundwork for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to improve international coordination in tackling tax evasion, illicit financial flows, and corporate profit-shifting.   “Low effective corporate tax rates, wasteful tax incentives, lax regulation of illicit financial flows, tax evasion and tax avoidance, and the permitting of tax havens and financial secrecy drive a race to the bottom, depriving other countries of significant resources for public services on health, education, housing, and for social security and environmental policies.”   The Committee underscored the duty of States to regulate financial institutions and corporate entities within their jurisdiction to prevent tax abuse.   “States parties should take all measures to combat illicit financial flows by business enterprises operating within or domiciled in their territory, including through the adoption and enforcement of mandatory due diligence mechanisms.”   It further called for stronger international cooperation to build an inclusive, fair and effective global tax governance, including measures to enhance financial transparency, eliminate tax havens, and implement a globally coordinated minimum corporate tax rate.   “Aligning tax cooperation with the obligations under the Covenant can contribute to the effective mobilization of resources and redistribution of wealth, thereby addressing high levels of inequalities and facilitating substantial investments in the institutions, public services and programs essential for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights for all,” the Committee said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/fair-and-effective-tax-policies-needed-advance-economic-social-and-cultural http://www.cesr.org/states-adopt-un-resolution-to-further-rights-enabling-economic-policies/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories