This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ban autonomous weapons now, UN and Red Cross chiefs tell countries

Machines which can kill without a human controlling them must be prohibited by international law, UN chief António Guterres said on Thursday.

In a joint appeal with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, the leaders urged countries to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems “to preserve human control over the use of force” and protect humanity.

“Our concerns have only been heightened by the increasing availability and accessibility of sophisticated new and emerging technologies, such as in robotics and Artificial Intelligence technologies, that could be integrated into autonomous weapons,” Mr. Guterres and Ms. Spoljaric said.

They insisted that allowing autonomous weapons to be controlled by machine learning algorithms – “fundamentally unpredictable software which writes itself”– was unacceptable, while all other autonomous weapons needed to be subjected to clear restrictions and placed under human supervision.

The UN and Red Cross chiefs stressed that years of multilateral discussions have laid the groundwork for countries to negotiate a new, legally binding treaty by 2026. 

States ‘can and must do more’ to counter religious hatred: Türk

Religious hate speech is “unfolding unchecked” on and offline, while gaps in national policy frameworks are letting it slip through the cracks, UN rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday.

Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk said that countries “can and must do more” to counter this scourge:

“Training initiatives for law enforcement officers and the judiciary, faith-based actors, teachers and media professionals in combating religious hatred need to be part of a comprehensive approach which integrates faith literacy, better understanding and sensitivity and clear measures to address discrimination.”

The UN human rights chief expressed hope that the dialogue at the Council would be a first step towards a policy “blueprint” for countries to combat religious hatred in line with international human rights law. Mr. Türk also said that his Office would also seek to involve major social media companies and look at their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 

Human rights impacts of religious hatred have come under close scrutiny at the Council since an urgent debate on the topic and a resolution adopted in July called on States to take action, following a Quran burning in Sweden in June.

Sudan: humanitarians call for ‘much more’ international solidarity, slam interference from warring parties

In war-torn Sudan, half of the population or almost 25 million people require humanitarian aid and protection, but there are not nearly enough funds to help them.

Here’s the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, telling reporters in Geneva about the consequences of the organisation’s $2.6 billion appeal for Sudan remaining just one-third funded: 

“We’re seeing high incidences of malnutrition. The health systems are struggling. We need additional resources for dialysis machines. We have a recent cholera outbreak. Additional resources will make sure that we are able to provide the medical equipment as well as the medicines, we’re able to expand our WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] capacity on the ground and we’re able to provide the much-needed protection for the women, children and the most vulnerable of the population.”

In addition to “much more solidarity” from the international community Ms. Nkweta-Salami said that humanitarians need better access and safety for their operations, as well as less interference from the parties to the conflict.

She stressed that on both main routes for bringing in aid, across the border from Chad and through Port Sudan, humanitarians have to negotiate “with all armed groups” and have faced blockages and looting. The UN official deplored the fact that aid workers’ efforts have been hampered despite an agreement concluded in Jeddah in May where the parties committed to providing unimpeded humanitarian access.

South Sudan: rights probe calls out media censorship, civil society repression

Staying in the region: the Government of South Sudan treats journalists and civil society critics as “enemies”, and its “aversion to dissent and debate” compromises democratic prospects.

That’s the stark message from the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan in a new report published on Thursday, which details how the country’s National Security Service intervenes in newsrooms to cut stories and demands civil society groups seek prior authorization for all activities.

Commissioner Barney Afako called it a “tragic irony” that in an independent South Sudan, “its liberators, now in government, are intolerant of public scrutiny, discussion of critical views, and political opposition”. 

The UN-appointed independent rights experts said in their report that the use of coercion and violence to pursue political objectives has “fuelled gross human rights violations and devastated the country”.

They also pointed out the absence of an “independent and properly resourced judiciary” and of transitional justice institutions. “Rushing toward elections (potentially in 2024) without these key fundamentals in place risks compounding grievances and fuelling further violence, with potentially disastrous impacts for South Sudan’s peoples and its future”, the Commissioners said.