Australian Human Rights Commission
Protecting Human Rights from Military Technologies, 30 November 2023
likely that an independent international governance board will be required to
audit and ensure that algorithm-powered NTMD are compliant with
international legal frameworks.
17. Article 36 of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions places an obligation on
States to carry out legal reviews of new weapons to ensure conflict is conducted
in accordance with international law. However, article 36 contains no
mechanism to ensure accountability of reviews.
18. NTMD are increasing at an exponential rate, with several emerging
technologies being trialled in existing conflict zones.
19. There needs to be a strengthened investigatory and reporting measure on
NTMD. Such a response should be independent of States, in the form of a new
Special Rapporteur on New and Emerging Military Technologies in the Military
Domain.
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Question 4
20. As noted by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human
rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ní
Aoláin, technologies are being ’misused worldwide to restrict and violate
human rights’.9
21. The use of NTMD will violate non-derogable rights – because of a lack of
oversight and impunity for those who utilise NTMD (as discussed below),10 in
addition to challenging fundamental notions of human rights.
5.1
Artificial intelligence
22. The use artificial intelligence (AI) can have a catastrophic effect if it is deployed
without appropriate regard for human rights.11 The use of AI in military
domains, such as national security, can greatly impact the right to privacy – and
broader rights (discussed below).12
23. The Alliance has previously discussed the role of AI and human rights in its
input to the United Nations Global Digital Compact.13
24. Where AI is utilised in NTMD, as opposed to in civilian applications, the risks to
human rights and life are paramount.
5.2
Right to life
25. The use of many NTMD deprives a person of their right to life under
international human rights law. As the Human Rights Committee noted in
General Comment No. 36 (2019) this right is ’the supreme right from which no
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