From landmines to killer robots — inside the campaigns to ban weapons of war - ABC listen

It was the stuff of scifi blockbuster movie The Terminator in the early 1980s, but now lethal autonomous weapons systems are actually being used in conflict zones around the world. And the arms race is on to develop more effective, more deadly killing machines, that don't need human inputs to do their job.

This event was recorded at Human Rights Watch in Sydney on 4 June 2024.

Speakers

Mary Wareham Deputy Director, Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division, Human Rights WatchCo-Laureate (with Jody Williams), Nobel Peace Prize, 1997, for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)

Daniela Gavshon Australian Director, Human Rights Watch

A pilot's display in a ground control station shows a truck from the view of a camera on an MQ-9 Reaper during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. The Reaper is a "hunter-killer" unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and is designed to engage time-sensitive targets on the battlefield as well as provide intelligence and surveillance. (Ethan Miller, Getty Images North America)

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