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Can Robocop Serve and Protectt within the Confines of Law Enforcement Rules?

2014; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.2755188

1556-5068

Thompson Chengeta,

Peacebuilding and International Security

The debate on whether AWS are consistent with international law has largely focussed on International Humanitarian Law. This is so because AWS are considered military weapons - therefore, meant to be used in armed conflict where international humanitarian law is the applicable regime. However, other scholars emphasise that international human rights law is equally relevant in the AWS debate. When the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions first presented his report on AWS to the UN Human Rights Council in 2013, there was a number of states who felt that the issue of AWS is not within the mandate of the Human Rights Council because it concerns military weapons, a subject that is governed by International Humanitarian Law and belonging to the disarmament forum. In this paper, I consider the relevance of International Human Rights Law to the AWS debate and the question whether AWS are consistent with human rights norms that seek to protect important rights such as the right to life and dignity.