The United Nations' human rights chief has called for urgent international regulation of autonomous weapons systems such as drones amid the rising risk of war crimes.
"We are seeing a global shift in how war is waged," Volker Türk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, pointing to the role of deadly, unmanned drones in conflicts in Ukraine, DR Congo, Sudan, Myanmar and the Middle East.
"The UN has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons," he said. "This reality is now upon us."
In Ukraine, where Russia's full-scale invasion is now into its fifth year, Türk said "relentless drone attacks have caused mass casualties and terrorized civilians."Sudan: huge increase in drone attacks
Meanwhile in Sudan, Türk said that more than 1,000 civilians had been killed by indiscriminate drone strikes this year alone.
