The Cargo Drone Code of Conduct

WeRobotics and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) are reviewing and updating the International Drone Code of Conduct in 2019. Launched in 2014, this Code of Conduct (Code) benefitted from several dozen humanitarian organizations contributing directly to its development through an open, two-year, multi-stakeholder consultative process. The Code was last updated in 2016, which is why WeRobotics and HHI are soliciting input to update and improve the Code of Conduct. 

One area that WeRobotics is exploring is the extension of the Code to include the use of cargo drones in humanitarian and public health efforts. Drones are increasingly being tested and used to transport medical cargo, presenting critical opportunities to improve public health services. But these opportunities also pose several ethical challenges and other dilemmas. To this end, the working draft here is meant to start an open, multi-stakeholder consultative process to create dedicated guidelines on cargo drones for UAVcode. 

The draft was prepared by the Flying Labs network, which represents the interests, experience and priorities of local drone experts, entrepreneurs, business professionals and engineers in 25+ countries worldwide including Bénin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Fiji, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, La Réunion, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Sénégal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Kindly add your comments directly to the Google Doc by November 1st, 2019 to recommend edits. WeRobotics and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative will then review all feedback and update UAVcode accordingly.