Stop Killer Robots pushes global treaty to keep humans in control of AI weapons

Published June 18, 2026

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Why it matters

Elizabeth Minor, policy director at Stop Killer Robots, is pushing governments to establish binding international rules requiring meaningful human control over autonomous weapons systems. The coalition—a network of more than 300 organizations across 70 countries, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—is targeting UN negotiations and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons process to create legal limits on what autonomous systems can do in combat and to preserve human judgment in targeting decisions.

The campaign, launched in 2012, has taken on new urgency as military AI deployment outpaces regulatory frameworks. The specific concern is that the distinction between decision-support systems and weapons capable of independently selecting and engaging targets is collapsing. The coalition argues that recent conflicts demonstrate autonomous weapons are already in use, making the window for preventive regulation narrow.

Attorneys tracking weapons law, international humanitarian law, or government AI policy should monitor UN negotiations on this issue. A binding treaty could reshape how defense contractors design systems, how militaries deploy them, and how liability flows in autonomous targeting decisions. The outcome will likely determine whether autonomous weapons regulation happens through treaty, national law, or not at all—with significant implications for clients in defense, government, and human rights work.