A non-governmental organisation is campaigning against the use of automated killer robots that are receiving global attention. ENE OSANG writes.
The world is becoming a global village with indications from various countries of the world where fully automated weapons are being developed.
Reports have shown that countries like the US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia and the UK are developing weapons with significant autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking set targets.
Killer Robots are fully autonomous weapons that would be able to select and engage targets without human intervention.
They are also referred to as lethal autonomous weapons that can make lethal decisions without human involvement.
As a result of this, the IANSA women Network NIGERIA is calling on Nigerian government to join other countries of the world to negotiate a new ban treaty by 2020, saying no country will be safe from lethal autonomous weapons systems.According to its national coordinator, Mimidoo Achakpa, a global meeting is about to be convened to discuss if there would be a political declaration to ban its existence.
“This month of March, a global meeting would be held in Berlin, Germany precisely from 21 to 23 to discuss either if it would be a political declaration or treaty and the Nigerian government is expected to not only attend but endorse the declaration or support the treaty even as other states have called for the ban.
“Secondly when Nigeria as the big brother of Africa sneezes, most African countries follow suit so in other words, Nigeria is expected to take a lead by mobilising these countries to endorse whatever would be the outcome,” she said.
Why ban non existing weapons?
Achakpa said the call became necessary because they are fully autonomous weapons that decide who lives and dies without further human intervention, a development that crosses a moral threshold.
“As machines, they would lack the inherently human characteristics such as compassion that are necessary to make complex ethical choices of who lives and dies inclusive of women and children.”If left unchecked the world could enter a destabilising robotic arms race. Replacing troops with machines could make the decision to go to war easier and shift the burden of conflict even further on civilians, the would make tragic mistakes with unanticipated consequences that could inflame tension and when this happens, women and children would be at the receiving end. History shows their use would not be limited to certain circumstances.
“As it is now, it’s unclear who can be held responsible for unlawful acts caused by autonomous weapons: the programmer, manufacturer, commander and the machine itself. This accountability gap would make it difficult to ensure justice especially for victims. Therefore, the development, production and use of these fully autonomous weapons must be banned,” she stressed.She further said that the only way is to legislate the ban through national and international treaty; hence, the call for all countries to articulate their views on the concerns raised by fully autonomous weapons and commit to create a new ban treaty to establish the principle of meaningful human control over the use of the force.
“All technology companies and organisations as well as individuals working to develop artificial intelligence and robotics should pledge to never contribute to the development of fully autonomous weapons,” she said.On her part, the programme manager, Violet Ocheikwu, noted that Nigeria is signatory to treaties, stressing that citizens should also be aware that a treaty to ban killer robots is about to come up and urged Nigerians to key into it because of the danger involved.
“Though these weapons are in the process of being developed, the US, China, Korea, UK, Rusia and some other countries are already developing this because there are automated weapons unmanned that are already in existence, so in a matter of time, the fully automated ones would be developed and released. This fully automated weapons are just meant to hit targets after being programmed,” she explained.
“The world is evolving and some of these things are emerging so the manned ones (in the air and monitored on the ground) is existing, sometimes in the future, there are going to be unmanned ones.
“The Tsaigumi UAV was produced by Nigerian Air Force Aerospace Engineers in collaboration with UAV Vision of Portugal. It is planned to be used for Intelligence Surveillance and Recognisance (ISR) operations in land and sea domains and also for policing operations, disaster management, convoy protection, maritime patrol, pipeline and power line monitoring as well as mapping and border patrol duties. Plans are already underway to mass produce the Tsaigumi UAV as well as develop the nation’s first indigenous Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle. For Nigeria to have that today what do we expect tomorrow. These things are already evolving and that is why we are campaigning against it. It is crucial for Nigerians to be aware of them and call for a stop for its production,” she stressed.
Dangers of fully autonomous weaponsIt is argued that, globally, the expanded use of unmanned armed vehicles has dramatically changed warfare, bringing new humanitarian and legal challenges.Also, the rapid advances in technology are resulting in efforts to develop fully autonomous weapons which would be able to choose and fire on targets on their own, without any human intervention.
“The use of fully autonomous weapon is currently not an issue in Nigeria as it may seem. There are also no laws on the use of these weapons as most of its population are ignorant on the existence of fully autonomous weapons.
“The use of fully autonomous weapons would create an accountability gap as there is no clarity on who would be legally responsible for a robot’s action: the programmer, manufacturer, or robot itself? Without accountability, these parties would have less incentive to ensure robots do not endanger civilians and victims would be left unsatisfied that someone was punished for the harm they experienced,” she added.
“This capability would pose a fundamental challenge to the protection of civilians and to compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law.
“Several nations with high-tech militaries, particularly the United States, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the United Kingdom are moving toward systems that would give greater combat autonomy to machines. Allowing life or death decisions to be made by machines crosses a fundamental moral line. They would lack human judgment and the ability to understand context,” she stressed.
Tony Onoja, of the Community Action for Popular Participation, an Abuja based NGO said the campaign is timely, adding that there is a gradual transformation of robotics into killer weapons in other countries which can be abused and civilians will be at the receiving end.
“Nations are waking up to the reality of their environment and security issues are becoming more complex so nations are embracing robotics which is useful in terms of surveillance and analysis, however where robotics is being empowered fully, it is highly unacceptable because military can use this to unleash harm on civilians but the semi autonomous weapons can be controlled,” he said.
What the future holds
There have been no incidents on the use of fully autonomous weapons but the country is progressively on the path to using them.As globalisation becomes a full reality, Nigeria could eventually be drafted into the use of fully autonomous weapons if and when the need arises. The continuous insurgence characterised by the Boko Haram activities in the North-east Nigeria as well as the farmers and herders conflict across the country raises the fear of a possible outbreak of war if not tackled urgently.
To this end, the campaign urges all countries to consider and publicly elaborate their policy on fully autonomous weapons, particularly with respect to the ethical, legal, policy, technical, and other concerns that have been raised.
