Catherine Thornton and KIrsty McRuvie write for the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
The workshop New Technologies in the Global Battlespace was held by the International Peace and Security Interest Group (ISPIG) of ANZSIL and the University of Queensland’s Law and Future of War Research Group on the 13th of May 2022. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss academic papers and practical implications concerning the impact of new technologies on compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and public international law more broadly.
Through presentations and Q&A dialogues, the workshop discussed current challenges within IHL concerning, inter alia,
- autonomy in weapons systems and data processing,
- accountability of the corporate actors creating autonomous weapons systems
- the role of visual evidence in IHL compliance
- the applicability of IHL to cyber military operations
- efforts to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention, the legalities of technology-sharing in the maritime environment, and
- the viability of digital emblems in safeguarding protected persons during cyber-operations.
The workshop featured contributions by various experts in the academic, humanitarian and government sectors, bringing holistic and comprehensive views on the topic of new technologies. Whilst each speaker covered an independent but related topic, there were four key themes that we identified as resonating across the workshop.
Read the full article at the ANZ Society of International Law
