SGI Buddhists call for early regulation of Autonomous Weapons Systems

On July 23, 2026, the SGI (Soka Gakkai International) issued a statement titled “Autonomous Weapons Systems: Ensuring Human Control Based on Respect for the Dignity of Life.” See full text in Japanese.

With ongoing conflicts serving as a catalyst for the rapid development and deployment of weapons incorporating emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), the SGI welcomes steps in the international community toward regulation of Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS). The SGI statement calls for comprehensive prohibition of systems designed to select and engage human targets.

It asserts: “If attacks involving civilians were to become semi-automated in conflicts through the unchecked use of AWS, the restraining force of human conscience—which has long served as a foundation supporting international law—would be entirely lost.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has also proposed that the regulatory instrument under discussion by the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) convened under the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) include a provision prohibiting antipersonnel AWS. The Stop Killer Robots coalition, in which the SGI has participated since 2018, likewise calls on governments to draw up legal and ethical boundaries to prevent a dangerous drift toward automated killing.

Chief Executive Director of the SGI Peace Center Hirotsugu Terasaki comments: “While we continue to work toward a world free from both nuclear weapons and autonomous killing machines, we welcome the focus in the ongoing negotiations on ensuring ‘meaningful human control’ over autonomous weapons. There is a growing understanding that decisions concerning life and death must never be left solely to machines.”

The SGI has consistently warned—based on the Buddhist principle of respect for the dignity of life—that AWS reduce those subjected to attack to mere “data.” Such a digital erasure of humanity risks trivializing the taking of life and the immense suffering inherent in war. The SGI has also highlighted the risk that AI algorithms may not only reflect but amplify existing social biases. Profiling systems could result in individuals being targeted by AWS on the basis of arbitrary assumptions about particular groups.

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023) first called for regulation at a time when autonomous weapons were still an imagined threat, warning in 2014: “Robotic weapons, when given a command to attack, automatically go on killing, without the intervention of human will . . . with no possibility of pangs of conscience or remorse. They present an extremely grave threat, particularly from a humanitarian perspective.”

By the March 2026 GGE session, 70 states had supported launching negotiations on a legally binding instrument. The final session is from August 31 to September 4, 2026, and the SGI hopes that the GGE’s report to the November Review Conference of the CCW will set out a way to launch negotiations on a treaty that incorporates a ban on antipersonnel AWS.

The SGI is determined to work together with the states calling for the regulation and prohibition of AWS, as well as with the ICRC and the civil society organizations and religious leaders participating in the Stop Killer Robots coalition. The SGI will continue to promote grassroots awareness of the dangers posed by autonomous weapons, including through promotion of documentaries such as Immoral Code.

The SGI (Soka Gakkai International) is an international association of the Soka Gakkai, a global community-based Buddhist organization that promotes peace, culture and education centered on respect for the dignity of life. This is the third statement by the SGI Global Perspectives Committee that issues statements suggesting approaches for the resolution of pressing global challenges, building upon ideas advocated by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda in his peace proposals.

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Contact:
Hiro Sakurai
SGI Office for UN Affairs
hiro.sakurai@sgi-ouna.org

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