This November, governments have an opportunity to launch negotiations on an autonomous weapons treaty, with the risks growing and public support for action clear. On the Quakers in Britain website, Yvette Issar (Peace and Disarmament Representative at the Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva) explains why now is the time to make our voices heard.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Secretary General and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) jointly warned that the world is perilously close to “crossing a moral red line”. They were warning about human beings being targeted and killed by autonomous machines…

So far states have taken a two-tier approach to autonomous weapons. This approach prohibits some autonomous weapons and restricts the development and use of others. For Quakers, whose commitment to peace extends beyond limiting the means of warfare, this may not go far enough. The peace testimony asks us to “utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever”.