States must not let a decade of progress on killer robots be watered down, warns Stop Killer Robots, as final GGE session opens in Geneva

Between August 31 and September 4, 2026, representatives of States are meeting in Geneva for the final session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) before the Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), scheduled for November.

The meeting takes place at a particularly significant moment in more than a decade of international discussions on the legal, humanitarian, ethical, and security challenges related to autonomous weapon systems. The outcomes of this session will contribute to the decisions that States will have to make at the Review Conference regarding the next steps in the process.

As a Brazilian organization that is part of the Stop Killer Robots campaign, DHESARME is making available the press release below, originally published by the campaign on August 31, 2026, contributing to broadening access to international discussions on the regulation of autonomous weapon systems. To read the Stop Killer Robots press release in Portuguese, click here.

For more information, read the Stop Killer Robots advocacy briefing on the 2026 negotiations towards an international legal framework on autonomous weapon systems.

03/09/2026 BRT

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As the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE)¹ on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems opens its final session before the CCW Review Conference in November, the Stop Killer Robots² campaign is calling on states to protect over a decade of progress and agree a strong foundation for negotiating a legally binding treaty warning that human control over the use of force is "hanging by a thread."

This is the last GGE session³ before governments make a political decision, at the Review Conference, on whether and how to move forward. Campaigners from Stop Killer Robots' global network are in Geneva this week, urging states to resist any last-minute weakening of the text and to recognise that the elements developed so far are a sufficient basis to begin formal negotiations without further delay.

"Governments have spent over a decade building a common understanding on how to address killer robots. Now, at the eleventh hour, some states want to water that progress down," said Elizabeth Minor, Head of Policy for Stop Killer Robots. "We are telling governments clearly: don't. Humans, not machines, must stay in control of life and death decisions, and any attempt to weaken that principle must be rejected."

"It is essential that states show the political courage to stand behind their progress, rather than sign off on a watered-down text to appease militarised states already invested in developing these dehumanising weapons systems," Minor said.

The call comes amid mounting evidence that autonomous and automated and AI-enabled weapons are no longer a future risk but a present reality. Reports from recent conflicts point to the growing use of autonomous and AI-enabled systems on the battlefield, including systems capable of detecting and killing people without direct human control, alongside continued reports of civilian harm. The UN Secretary-General and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross have jointly reaffirmed their call for states to begin negotiations on a legally binding instrument, warning that a "failure to act quickly and decisively will cost lives."

"Human control is hanging by a thread. Autonomous, AI-enabled weapons are already being tested and used on the battlefield, not someday, but right now," the Minor said. "Delay is not neutral. It is a decision to let control slip further away. Machines must not decide who lives and who dies. That is the ethical, humanitarian, and legal red line, and we refuse to accept anything less."

Stop Killer Robots stresses that even a strong outcome at the Review Conference in November represents only the bare minimum needed to protect civilians and uphold existing legal principles, and that a legally binding treaty guaranteeing meaningful human control over the use of force is the least the international community can do to meet the scale of the challenge already visible on today's battlefields. Whether this is possible is reliant on whether states can rise to the occasion this week and act now before digital dehumanisation becomes irreversible.

Stop Killer Robots

31 August 2026

Notes

¹ The Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems operates under the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). This week's session is the final GGE meeting before the CCW Review Conference, scheduled for November 2026, at which states will decide on next steps for the process, and could choose to start negotiations on legal rules.

² Stop Killer Robots is a global coalition of non-governmental organisations working to ensure meaningful human control over the use of force and to prohibit and restrict autonomous weapons systems.

For interviews, further comment, or briefing materials, please contact Clare Conboy, Stop Killer Robots, media@stopkillerrobots.org.

Media contact

Clare Conboy, Head of Campaigns and Partnerships, Stop Killer Robots

Email: media@stopkillerrobots.org

Phone: 00447511055694

Website: www.stopkillerrobots.org