UN agrees text on lethal autonomous weapons

UN agrees text on lethal autonomous weapons. AFP Published September 5, 2026 Updated September 5, 2026 11: 32pm.

Key points

• Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen confirmed the agreement, by 128 countries, on Saturday.
• UN member states will decide at November discussions of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons whether to move towards an international treaty regulating such weapons.
• Lex International, a Geneva-based philanthropic group funding work on key policy problems, additionally criticised some nations' position.
• Countries are already developing and using weapons capable of selecting targets and using force against them without human intervention.
• The ICRC and a number of campaigning groups have called on international legally binding rules to restrict and regulate their employ.

Almost 130 countries on Saturday agreed on a text defining lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) – "killer robots" to their critics – a first step towards negotiations on a feasible international treaty to regulate them.

For context, the text agreed upon has not yet been created public – but campaign groups after the discussions have already criticised leading countries for dragging their feet on the problem.

Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen confirmed the agreement, by 128 countries, on Saturday. The Netherlands has been overseeing the discussions.

Countries are already developing and using weapons capable of selecting targets and using force against them without human intervention. But the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) cautioned in an official note that "the unconstrained development and use of autonomous weapon systems pose serious legal, ethical and humanitarian challenges".

In practice, the ICRC and a number of campaigning groups have called on international legally binding rules to restrict and regulate their employ.

Nicole van Rooijen, executive director of Stop Killer Robots, an international alliance of campaign groups, accused the United States, Russia and their allies of trying to weaken the agreed text.

Lex International, a Geneva-based philanthropic group funding work on key policy problems, additionally criticised some nations' position. "The United States, Russia, India and Israel are amongst the key opponents of negotiations, " it remarked. "The governments of Brazil, Ireland, and Norway are leading efforts to get such negotiations started in November."

Taken together, the developments around UN agrees text on lethal autonomous weapons point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.