Topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems
Country: Tunisia
Delegate Name: Matthew Russell
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Tunisia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
As the United Nations must limit the use of these devices as it goes against many moral standards as well as if it were to falls into the wrong hands it could result in countless instances of death because automated weapon systems are incredibly easy to use and pilot and can kill autonomous. As of June 2015 the death toll of automated weapon systems by aerial vehicles alone is thought to have exceeded 6000, 890 of these being civilians and another 175 being children. There are already autonomous weapon systems being used at the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea that are able to kill with no human interaction or human control.
Any automated weapon could be used in a way to prevent terrorism. However I also see if these got into the wrong hands we could have quite an issue, not just for my country for the entire world. For instance if these got the hands of the very terrorists they were trying to stop groups such as ISIS these weapons could be used against us. The fact that if these are allowed to continue being used and produced the way they are there will be so many that it will be incredibly easy for people like arms dealers to take them and sell them to very dangerous people. They are also a danger to national sovereignty this is because of how small they are as they do not need a pilot inside of any kind. They are not easily picked up by radar making it almost impossible for a country to predict if it’s about to be attacked by whoever may be attacking. Furthermore the people who are held responsible for these automated weapon systems are the governments or organizations were controlling them. This brings me to another point. As far as these machines having the ability to automatically destroy targets should only be by immobile ground-based units is not having human control of air-based units could potentially lead to an interference of national sovereignty.
I propose that while these devices are still used there should be strict guidelines in place to protect the national sovereignty such as restrictions in crossing a nation’s borders. This could be achieved by limiting automated weapon systems to only be able to be used against military groups that are not sovereign nations. However these autonomous weapon systems are a vital tool in the fight against terrorism. But there should also be strict procedures in place regarding who these automated weapon systems are controlled by where they are being used (suburban environments and cities as opposed to rain forest or deserts) and based on these environmental what kind of weapons are being used by the drones, As well as better security systems for these drones to make sure they are not hijacked or stolen by terrorists.
