October 26, 2014
UN Side Meeting in New York on Autonomous Weapons
As part of meetings held by the United Nations General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament & International Security, the Republic of Croatia sponsored a side event titled “Addressing Concerns Over Fully Autonomous Weapons.” Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, who coordinates the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, moderated the event. The speakers were Ms. Jody Williams, a Nobel Peace prize laureate, Mr. Ryan Gariepy, the Chief Technology Officer of Clearpath Robotics, and Ms. Miriam Struyk, a program manager at PAX, a think tank based in the Netherlands. The speakers discussed their concerns about the future development of fully autonomous weapons systems, discussing topics ranging from how robotics companies in the defense sector should think about the development of autonomous military robotics to issues surrounding dangers from the use of these weapons.