Topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems
Country: Serbia
Delegate Name: Connor Buhl
School: Fishers High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Serbia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
Serbia is a nation that has a bloody past involving drones and autonomous weapon systems and as a result we know that their use must be condemned and cease indefinitely. In 1999, the international community ignored the national sovereignty of the former Yugoslav states and joined a NATO effort to cause unwarranted destruction in the Balkans. This bombing killed somewhere between 489 – 528 innocent civilians. These bombings were some of the first uses of the predator drone by either the USA or NATO and the Serbian people certainly felt the impact of these bombings. While Serbs died in the streets and their workplaces, a man in a chair thousands of miles away reaped destruction by pressing a single button. After experiencing the carnage from these bombing campaigns, Serbia strongly condemns the use of autonomous weapon systems. We believe that the indiscriminate killing power of armed UAVs shows that there can be no positive outcome from further development of autonomous weapon systems. Even with the most advanced robotics, AWS will continue to take innocent lives and in a greater scale than any human could perform.
Serbia believes that restricting the use of AWS does not infringe upon national sovereignty, but in fact does the opposite by protecting the sovereignty of nations who will undoubtedly have their airspace or borders violated by AWS owning nations in military operations. In addition, nations that have the capabilities to field AWS will have a major advantage over nations without them. Any technology that allows a nation to kill hundreds without any retaliation or condemnation is certainly something that Serbia hopes future generations never have to deal with. We believe that nations that do currently utilize weaponized UAVs and other AWS are fully responsible for the casualties they leave behind. If we do not do this and condemn nations that use AWS then these nations will always have an advantage over every nation that does not possess the same military technology. Currently, it would be possible for a developed nation to lead a campaign of tyranny against developing nations without having a single casualty on their side. These nations argue that AWS are safer because they reduce allied casualties. But Serbia must remind these nations and the committee that the UN was founded to be neutral in armed conflict and to encourage peace. Peace cannot be reached if we determine a single side as wrong or right. If we allow a certain side to be right in a conflict then we ignore the human lives being lost on the other side.
Serbia does, however, tolerate and utilize, surveillance based UAVs. Our government and military own several non-weapon based UAVs for use in peaceful surveillance and reconnaissance. The International Humanitarian Law does not currently have any regulations on AWS due to an absence of standard evaluation method. Serbia believes that an easy regulation and reasonable solution would be to simply restrict the use of AWS to surveillance and not allow or, at the very least, strongly condemn the use of weapon based AWS. We believe that by taking this step, the international community can save countless lives from indiscriminate destruction.
Works Cited
Iii, Experimentelle Physik, Germany Technische Universität Dortmund, Arbeitsgruppe Dpg-Jahrestagung, and Physik Und Abrüstung. "Ban on Autonomous Weapon Systems." Ban on Autonomous Weapon Systems – Issues of Definition and Compliance (n.d.): n. pag. DPG-PHYSIK.DE. 19 Mar. 2014. Web.
"NATO Bombs Yugoslavia." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
"UAV's: Serbian UAV Solution "Sparrow"" Balkan Monitor A Defence Security Daily. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
