Autonomous-weapons warning lands ahead of November treaty decision
States will decide in November whether to open treaty talks. As CERD reviewed minority rights in India, Rohingya refugees marked nine years since the exodus by demanding justice and return.
Geopolitics··Evening
The call for binding autonomous-weapons rules returns
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric renewed their 2023 call for binding rules on autonomous weapons. They described machines autonomously targeting humans as a moral red line and said the world was dangerously close to crossing it. They define lethal autonomous weapon systems as those that select targets and apply force without human intervention. States are due to decide in November whether to open full treaty negotiations. Discussions have run for about a decade, and there is no confirmed use of a fully autonomous weapon to date.[1]
CERD reviews India for the first time since 2007
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD, said it was gravely concerned by reports of extrajudicial killings, torture and excessive force by law-enforcement officials against ethnic, tribal and religious minorities in India. It also raised hate crimes against Bengali-speaking Muslims, racial profiling in police stops and identity checks, and deportations of asylum seekers and Rohingya. Tushar Mehta, who led India's delegation, said it had emphasised the country's pluralism and its constitutional and legal safeguards, and that India continued towards equality, dignity and opportunity for all Indians. CERD's recommendations are not binding.[2]
Rohingya demand the right to return nine years on
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees gathered at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh to demand justice and the right to return. The demonstration marked nine years since the military campaign that drove more than 700,000 people from Myanmar's Rakhine state. UN figures said Bangladesh hosted about 1.2 million Rohingya refugees as of July, while conditions in the camps are worsening as international aid falls. The Gambia's genocide case over the 2017 campaign, filed in 2019, remains before the International Court of Justice. Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982.[3]
