The Holy See made its first statement ever about weaponized drones and other automated weapons systems at a United Nations arms control meeting in Geneva Nov. 14. The statement by the Holy See’s Geneva representative, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, called for UN members to look at the legal and ethical implications of the new technology under the terms of the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons — a treaty Canada has signed.
“Canada does not support a ban on this technology, which does not even exist,” Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development spokesperson Jean-Bruno Villeneuve told The Catholic Register in response to several questions about Canada’s position and the Vatican’s intervention on the issue.
The Holy See will continue its push for a serious examination of the arms control issues around drones, a Holy See diplomat told The Catholic Register.
“The Convention on Conventional Weapons established an informal group to discuss in 2014 the issue of autonomous weapons where the Holy See intends to raise also related issues like drones,” said Fr. Antoine Abi Ghanem, who works closely with Tomasi. “This will be on the table for some time.”
Foreign Affairs refused to answer five separate questions on Canada’s position.
Legal experts and non-governmental think tanks are praising the Vatican’s effort to get the UN talking about drones and international humanitarian law.
“For the Vatican to come out explicitly against the use of military drones, it’s a welcome development,” said Project Ploughshares program officer Cesar Jaramillo. “Religious arguments often play an important role in these debates, and there are of course millions of Catholics around the world. This will also help to raise the profile of the issues and raise awareness of the legal challenges posed by these emerging technologies.”
Jaramillo co-authored a civil society statement on drones and space-based weapons for another United Nations arms control meeting in New York in October. Jaramillo’s expertise is in militarization of space, but the issues are closely related given the importance of satellite technology in drone weapons guidance and targeting.
Project Ploughshares is a Church-backed ecumenical think tank based at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
Sarah Knuckey, special advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, said now is the time to talk about the legality and ethics of drone attacks.
“Numerous types of weapons and means of warfare have been internationally regulated, restricted or banned. Think of chemical and biological weapons, land mines, cluster munitions. Blinding laser weapons were legally prohibited pre-emptively,” said the expert for the New York University-based think tank Just Security. “There are ongoing and important discussions about emerging autonomous weapons and it is crucial that states — and all of us — consider carefully, before such weapons are used, what their consequences might be and whether we want them to exist or not.”
Knuckey praises the Holy See’s statement for “noting the deeply problematic fact of unaccounted-for civilian harm and the general secrecy of the U.S. operations. It demonstrates and explains the concerns of many around the world about current U.S. practices.”
The Vatican’s basic concern in the drone debate is about human dignity, said a Holy See diplomatic insider.
“Our priority is human dignity always,” said the diplomat who was not authorized to speak publicly. “For something to fall out of the sky on your head and kill you is certainly bereft of process and all the rest of it and therefore the human dignity issue comes into question.”
Tomasi called the use of drones to deliver bombs “a notable change in the conduct of hostile action.” A whole new kind of warfare can’t exist outside the bounds of law and shrouded in secrecy, said Tomasi.
“Social, political, economic and military factors may have changed the equation for some decision-makers regarding the use of weaponized drones, but the ethical and humanitarian concerns remain relevant and in fact have become more compelling as their use increases,” he said.