Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 30 November 2023 a ’fire, forget and find’ method. The targets of this reported attack were the retreating soldiers of the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar.17 16. There is a clear need to specifically regulate LAWS as a matter of urgency, as it will only become increasingly difficult to do so if LAWS become more widely available without restrictions being in place. 4 Question 2 17. The measures that can be taken to foster international cooperation and dialogue in order to promote the effective regulation of LAWS include both action by the UN and strengthened investigatory and reporting measures on NTMD (amongst others not discussed in this submission). 4.1 UN action 18. In 2023, the UN Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace called for the prohibition of LAWS, recommending that States develop a legally binding instrument that bans LAWS, especially those that do not require human control and are non-compliant with international humanitarian law.18 19. The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, have also made a joint appeal for States to ’urgently establish new international rules on autonomous weapons systems, to protect humanity’.19 20. Since then, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted its first ever resolution on autonomous weapons on 01 November 2023.20 The resolution stressed the ’urgent need for the international community to address the challenges and concerns raised by autonomous weapons systems’.21 21. This action recognises the concerns of the international community, and takes the initial step towards encouraging global cooperation and negotiations to regulate LAWS. 22. Promisingly, an item titled ‘lethal autonomous weapons systems’ has been included in the provisional agenda for the next session of the General Assembly, indicating that there will be further action.22 23. However progress is slow as in late November CCW attempts to negotiate regulation on LAWS stalled.23 It has been over a decade since LAWS were notably raised by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns.24 In this 2013 report to the Human Rights Council, Heyns called for States to establish national moratoria on 6