SGI Issues Statement on Autonomous Weapons Systems
On 23 July 2026, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) issued a statement entitled Autonomous Weapons Systems: Ensuring Human Control Based on Respect for the Dignity of Life.
In the statement, issued ahead of the Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) scheduled for November 2026, SGI calls for the urgent establishment of an international regulatory framework governing Autonomous Weapons Systems, including those employing AI, and a comprehensive prohibition on systems designed to select and engage human targets.
The statement highlights the growing number of states calling for the start of treaty negotiations and references the encyclical from Pope Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, issued in May 2026 in which he writes:
“AI does not remove the intrinsic inhumanity of conflict; indeed, it can only bring about conflict more quickly and render it more impersonal, lowering the threshold for resorting to violence, transforming defense into threat prediction and thus reducing victims to data. In this way, it will accustom us to the idea that violence is inevitable and needs only to be optimized.”
In 2014, President Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023) issued the following warning in his dialogue with peace scholar and Toda Peace Institute Honorary Director, Dr. Kevin Clements:
“Robotic weapons, when given a command to attack, automatically go on killing, without the intervention of human will, and accordingly, with no possibility of pangs of conscience or remorse. They present an extremely grave threat, particularly from a humanitarian perspective. The possession of such weapons, just like that of nuclear weapons, is underpinned by the cold logic of the utter and complete annihilation of assumed enemies, with no discrimination between civilians and combatants.”
The 2026 statement concludes with a strong argument for preventing destruction and division through a shift in perspective, which SGI has actively pursued through interfaith and intercultural dialogue to address global issues, including disarmament and human rights, while consistently promoting grassroots cultural and educational exchanges.
A link to the full statement from Soka Gakkai International can be found here.
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