Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 30 November 2023 3.1 Proportionality 7. One of the core principles of international humanitarian law is the principle of proportionality.4 This principle prohibits attacks which are 'expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated'.5 An attack will be proportionate if the perceived advantages outweigh the harms.6 8. LAWS rely upon artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition technologies (FRT) to independently identify and conduct attacks. Currently, AI cannot be programmed to comprehend and evaluate the infinite number of possibilities that can unfold in a conflict zone, meaning that they are not able to accurately decide proportionality and abort a planned attack if required.7 AI is also unable to understand the intrinsic value of human life, thus making it unable to undertake any weighing exercise in relation to proportionality. 9. If proportionality in warfare is not adhered to, then neither are the human rights of civilians. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has previously declared that machines determining proportionality in life or death situations is ‘politically unacceptable and morally repugnant’.8 3.2 LAWS 10. The Group of Governmental Experts of the Convention on Conventional Weapons is one of the key inter-governmental groups which seeks to regulate autonomous weapons. 126 States are parties to the Convention, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.9 In 2019, the group adopted 11 guiding principles 10 on the use of LAWS which confirmed the following: 4 • International humanitarian law continues to apply fully to all weapons systems. • Accountability cannot be transferred to machines and therefore human responsibility is retained. • Human-machine interaction should ensure that the use of LAWS complies with international humanitarian law. • Accountability for developing, deploying and using any emerging weapons systems in the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) must be ensured in accordance with international humanitarian law.