The UN human rights chief has called for urgent international regulation of autonomous weapons systems such as drones amid the growing threat of war crimes.
“We are witnessing a global change in the way wars are waged,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, pointing to the role of deadly, unmanned drones in conflicts in Ukraine, DR Congo, Sudan, Myanmar and the Middle East.
“The United Nations has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons,” he said. “This reality is now in front of us.”
In Ukraine, where Russia’s full-scale invasion is now in its fifth year, Turk said, “Frequent drone strikes have caused mass casualties and terrified civilians.”
Sudan: Huge increase in drone attacks
Meanwhile in Sudan, Turks said more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate drone strikes this year alone.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) sees an 81% increase in drone attacks and a 600% increase in drone-related deaths in the war-torn East African country between 2024 and 2025.
Jenny Chapman, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Africa and International Development, agreed, saying, “Sudan’s warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies by using drones supplied by their supporters to target civilians and aid workers.”
“This is reprehensible and it must stop,” he told the Associated Press (AP). She said it is important for organizations to “document abuse and preserve evidence – essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity.”
Drone war: UN chief warns against losing human control
Back in Geneva, Turk said the increased use of unmanned systems was “creating a new cycle of hell” for non-combatants in battlefields that risks increasing due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
“Billions of dollars, the potential for AI-enabled weapons [being] “The AI-enabled defensive shields brought down at the cost of billions of dollars expose the horror, emptiness and futility of war,” he said.
“Autonomous weapons cannot become a license to commit atrocity crimes.”
Amid growing fears that humans could lose control over fully automated weapons systems, sometimes colloquially called killer robots, calls for regulation are growing.
International treaties already exist to regulate the use of certain weapons, such as chemical weapons and cluster bombs, and the Turks have called for a similar treaty to regulate the use of unmanned drones.
“States need to urgently consider the ethical and legal questions this raises,” he said, calling on them to “agree on a common approach that protects civilian life and recommit to diplomacy and mediation.”
He said countries needed to update their legal frameworks to “require human controls and ensure accountability”.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn