Time to address the human rights implications of AI in the military domain

Privacy International participates in the informal multi-stakeholder exchanges in Geneva from 15 to 17 June 2026, where states, civil society organisations and other stakeholders address the use of Artificial Intelligence Systems in the Military Domain and Implications for International Peace and Security.

As militaries and companies around the world develop and deploy AI technologies in armed conflict, there is an urgent need to identify and adress the human rights challenges and to pursue regulatory efforts at national and international level to address emergining technologies and their application.

Our starting point is that the effective regulation of AI in the military domain requires to recognise privacy and data protection not as peripheral technical considerations, but as core human rights obligations integral to any meaningful regulatory framework.

In our contribution to the discussion, we make four main points:

Firstly, international human rights law (IHRL) provides a legally binding framework applicable throughout the entire lifecycle of AI. IHRL is applicable in peace and war time, including to the development, deployment and use of AI in the military domain.

Secondly, it is imperative that states initiate a global process toward a binding international instrument that bans and strictly regulates autonomous weapons systems (AWS).

Thirdly, the human rights implications of AI systems in military domain beyond AWS needs to be addressed. States should reject the use of ‘defence’ or ‘national security’ as a blanket justification to bypass regulation, and instead demonstrate legality, necessity, proportionality, and independent oversight in all AI systems in military domain.

They should adopt a moratorium on the use of AI systems for the use of force, for example in decision support systems, until necessary international rules and effective safeguards are in place and provide transparency on the use of AI and other data-driven technologies in the military domain, including the measures taken to mitigate human rights risks.

Lastly the role of companies must be addressed, using the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as the key reference framework. Under this framework, companies should stop developing, selling, transferring or servicing autonomous weapon systems that operate without meaningful human control, and stop supplying AI systems for the use of force, until necessary international rules and effective safeguards are in place.

Companies should also demonstrate compliance with international data protection standards, including by adopting data protection policies, clearly setting out what categories of personal data may be processed in military domain context, on what legal basis, subject to what safeguards, and with what oversight.

Privacy International statements delivered during the Informal Exchanges on Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain and its Implications for International Peace and Security:

1. Session 1: Opening Remarks and Scene Setting
2. Session 7: AI and Other Technologies range of such convergences, including information and communication technologies
3. Session 11: Existing and Emerging Normative Proposals