The United Nations‘ human rights chief has called for urgent international regulation of autonomous weapons systems such as drones amid the rising risk of war crimes.
“We are seeing a global shift in how war is waged,” Volker Türk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, pointing to the role of deadly, unmanned drones in conflicts in Ukraine, DR Congo, Sudan, Myanmar and the Middle East.
“The UN has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons,” he said. “This reality is now upon us.”
In Ukraine, where Russia’s full-scale invasion is now into its fifth year, Türk said “relentless drone attacks have caused mass casualties and terrorized civilians.”
Sudan: huge increase in drone attacks
Meanwhile in Sudan, Türk said that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed by indiscriminate drone strikes this year alone.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) observed an 81% increase in drone attacks and a 600% increase in drone-related deaths in the war-torn east African country between 2024 and 2025.
“Sudan’s warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies, using drones supplied by their backers to target civilians and aid workers,” concurred the United Kingdom‘s Minister for Africa and International Development, Jenny Chapman.
“This is deplorable and must stop,” she told the Associated Press (AP), adding that it was vital for organizations to “document abuses and preserve evidence – essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity.”
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Drone warfare: UN chief warns against loss of human control
Back in Geneva, Türk said the increased use of unmanned systems was “creating a new circle of hell” for non-combatants in warzones which risks being exacerbated by advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
“The prospect of billion-dollar, AI-enabled weapons [being] brought down by billion-dollar, AI-enabled defensive shields exposes the horror, emptiness, and futility of war,” he said.
“Autonomous weapons cannot become a license for atrocity crimes.”
Amid growing fears that human could lose control of fully-automated weapons systems, sometimes referred to colloquially as killer robots, calls are growing for regulation.
International treaties are already in place to govern the use of chemical weapons and certain munitions such as cluster bombs, and Türk has called for a similar treaty to regulate the use of unmanned drones.
“States urgently need to consider the moral and legal questions this raises,” he said, calling on them to “agree on a common approach that protects civilian lives, and recommit to diplomacy and mediation.”
He said countries needed to update their legal frameworks to “require human control and ensure accountability.”
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Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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