Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 30 November 2023 ‘lethal autonomous robotics’ (the language has since changed to LAWS).25 More must be done to regulate LAWS with much needed urgency. 4.2 Independent reviews 24. Article 36 of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions provides that States have an obligation to carry out legal reviews of new weapons to ensure that armed forces conduct hostilities in accordance with international law. Although Article 36 puts the obligation of monitoring on States, there are no powers holding them to account in complying with their Article 36 responsibility. 25. This process is also an internal one, predicated on good faith reviews as States are also not obliged to disclose the outcome of these reviews.26 26. Given the growing use of LAWS in conflict zones (at the time of writing), and mounting pressure from the global community to regulate and prohibit LAWS the review function must be strengthened. 27. States may not see it as being in their interests to review the development and deployment of new weapons – especially if they are simultaneously engaged in conflict. As such, there needs to be strengthened investigatory and reporting measures applying to NTMD. The introduction of a new special procedure to advise the Human Rights Council on NTMD would improve transparency. Recommendation 1: The Special Rapporteur on New and Emerging Military Technologies in the Military Domain be established. 28. LAWS are increasingly being raised by other Special Rapporteurs who may not always have the focused mandate to consider them in detail. For example, the Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, called for the global prohibition of LAWS in a 2023 report to the Human Rights Council on the use of new technologies. 27 Christof Heyns has also considered LAWS across several reports.28 29. A clear advantage of the proposed Special Rapporteur on New and Emerging Military Technologies in the Military Domain would be the ability to bring a specific focus on LAWS. The Commission recommends that the Special Rapporteur begin their mandate by investigating the development and use of LAWS. 30. Given the significant impact LAWS have on human rights, the proposed special procedures mandate-holder could immediately draw much needed 7