Osabarimah Aye Kofi, the Paramount Chief of Suhum has called on chiefs and queen mothers to use their festivals to support the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to preserve the peace of the country.
He also appealed to government and parliament to enact laws to prevent the manufacture and the sale of autonomous weapons referred to as Killer Robots.
He made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the sidelines of a day’s workshop organized by the International Humanitarian Relief and Rescue initiative (HRRI) to sensitise chiefs and queen mothers of the Eastern Region on the Campaign to Stop Killer Robot.
He encouraged the use of Robots as artificial intelligence for development.
Nana Afro Odekye, the Queen Mother of Suhum Overhead, urged queen mother associations across the country to add their voices to the campaign to help save the lives of the vulnerable, particularly women and children.
Mr Arthur Emmanuel, the Ghana Country Representative of Ed’s World Inc said the autonomous weapons being produced by China, South Korea, Russia, and the United States could only be stopped if developing countries like Ghana signed the international treaty to ban the Killer Robots.
Dr Mrs Ayoola Amale, President WILPF Ghana and the National Coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in Ghana said the usage of festivals by chiefs would easily help communicate the message of the campaign against killer robots.
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“Contrary to the belief that the Killer Robots could end Sexual violence; they will likely perpetuate it as fully autonomous weapons would not question an order to rape if programmed to do so.
“Killer Robots would be even less likely to disobey orders to commit rape than human soldiers due to their lack of conscience, empathy, or understanding of the act or consequences of sexual violence,” She said.
Mr Godwin Onogwu, the Project Manager of IHRRI called on the participants to pass on the campaign to others who could not make it to the workshop due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
He explained that killer robots were weapons systems that select and engage targets based on sensor inputs systems, where the objects to be attacked were decided by sensor processing, not by humans, which raises legal, ethical, technical, and security concerns.
“They would cross the threshold of acceptability and should be prevented and out-rightly prohibited,” he urged.
The theme of the workshop was: “Add your voices to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and make the world safe.”
