Topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems
Country: Benin
Delegate Name: Isaiah Daik
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Benin position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The topic of autonomous weapon systems has seen much talk and become something of a problem for the United Nations now. At the moment autonomous weapons are always being monitored to some degree by a human during its action, but the autonomous weapons of the future would have little to no human intervention during the weapons “critical function”. Now it’s the critical function aspect that worries many countries, as an autonomous weapon of the future would be able to use lethal force at will if deemed necessary. This is the problem we face, The U.N needs to decide what amount of human intervention is enough and a proper framework needs to be made to discuss what amount of human involvement is deemed adequate and safe.
Benin has interest on the subject of autonomous weapon systems due to the fact it’s becoming a global topic. Also, crime has flourished in Benin for over 50 years. These autonomous weapon systems could be used, but in a non-lethal way to deal with crime all over the country. The terrorist group Boko Haram is based in Nigeria and they could very easily make moves in Benin. Possibly these new weapons could a first line of defense for the country. On November 11 2013 delegates of Benin were sitting in at the Convention for Conventional Weapons (CCW) convention. They voted with France and many other countries against the creation and use of fully autonomous weapons at that point in time realizing the cons outweigh the pros. Now, the subject of autonomous weapon systems are a rising subject once again and Benin would like to see well-made rules and regulations for the use of autonomous weapons.
Benin would like to resolve this issue by working together with other countries to create a definition that clearly states the rules and regulations needed to have an autonomous weapon system, such as the amount of human intervention or the “critical functions” it’s allowed to perform on its own. We expect to find allies in countries that have funded their own autonomous weapon programs in the past such as China, Germany, Israel and more.
