Report: US and Russia Removed Safeguards From UN Autonomous Weapons Draft

US and Russian negotiators removed proposed language on human review of targets, predictable operation and ethical considerations from a draft on lethal autonomous weapons during Geneva talks, according to September 26 Washington Post reporting based on negotiators and draft texts. The discussions took place under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The account describes changes to a negotiating draft, not the adoption of a binding international rule; the exact edits still require comparison with the relevant draft versions.

Why it matters: Rules on human control and system reliability are central to accountability for autonomous targeting. If the reported removals remain in the text, governments seeking stronger restrictions will face a harder negotiation at the next review. Attribute the contested account to the reporting until the before-and-after texts are available.

Sources

Original reported account: Washington Post, September 26: washingtonpost.com ; UN disarmament working paper on human command and control: docs-library.unoda.org . The Post attributes the precise deletion account to negotiators and draft documents.