Austria calls for legally binding treaty to stop autonomous weapons from deciding life or death

Bata Minel Risinger warned that emerging technologies risk removing human judgment from life-and-death decisions on the battlefield and urged international rules to preserve human control. "No machine may decide to take a human life," she said, rejecting voluntary guidelines as insufficient and joining the secretary-general and the ICRC in calling for binding prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapons.

Risinger compared today's situation to past technological shifts, citing postwar efforts such as the IAEA's creation and Vienna's role in nuclear oversight as examples of building rules rather than waiting for catastrophe. She said Austria will make emerging technologies a priority during its Security Council term.