Ensuring Compliance of Autonomous Weapons System (AWS) with IHL: Navigating Legal Constraints and Optimization Challenges

This article, titled "Ensuring Compliance of Autonomous Weapons System (AWS) with IHL: Navigating Legal Constraints and Optimization Challenges," explores the intersection of autonomous weapons systems (AWS) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). With the rise of AWS in modern warfare, ensuring their compliance with IHL is crucial. The article addresses key questions: What legal constraints does IHL impose on AWS? What optimization challenges must be overcome to ensure compliance? How can policymakers and military developers navigate these issues? The article analyzes documents, ICRC Comments, Reports and existing literature using a qualitative, library-based research methodology. Findings reveal significant legal constraints related to accountability, proportionality, and distinction, alongside technical and ethical optimization challenges. The article concludes with recommendations for robust human oversight and clear legal frameworks to ensure AWS compliance with IHL, contributing valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on AWS regulation