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EU LINES TO TAKE Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons System

08.03.2023
Geneva
Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in Geneva

EU LINES TO TAKE

Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area

of Lethal Autonomous Weapons System

Geneva, 6-10 March 2023

 

  • At the outset, the EU takes this opportunity to thank Ambassador Flavio Damico of Brazil, in his capacity as the Chair, for his tremendous efforts and excellent leadership in GGE LAWS meetings. Notably, we appreciate his remarkable positive and constructive leadership to build the necessary momentum through the intersessional meetings and consultations.
  • The EU welcomes the work over the past years by the GGE on LAWS and acknowledges the substantial contribution it has made to our common understanding of this complex topic and to finding common ground. The past achievements, including the 11 guiding principles, previous outcome documents as well as the chair`s summary of the 2021 and 2022 sessions, should help to inform our work this year.
  • We support Chair’s approach and his guidelines for the debate of the first session in order to provide an interactive discussions within the Group. We should focus on identifying a set of commonalities across the proposals on the table. It is essential that the GGE continues its efforts based on a solid mandate, to allow for a progress and to achieve concrete results.
  • The CCW offers an appropriate framework for dealing with the issue of emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems within the context of the objectives and purposes of the Convention. The EU remains committed to pursue its efforts in the GGE with a view to ensuring that the outcome reflects the necessity of compliance with International Law, in particular International Humanitarian Law, taking into account relevant ethical considerations. The EU underlines that the CCW is the relevant international forum in this regard and must remain responsive to new developments in the field of weapons technology and be able to adequately address them.
  • The EU emphasises that human beings must make the decisions with regard to the use of lethal force, exert control over lethal weapons systems that they use and remain accountable for decisions over the use of force in order to ensure compliance with International Law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also taking into account ethical considerations. Those who plan, decide upon and carry out an attack using a lethal autonomous weapon system must, therefore, ensure that the weapon system and the way it is used preserve human beings’ ability to make these necessary legal judgements, and thereby ensure compliance with IHL. We recall that States bear a fundamental responsibility to ensure that the development, production, deployment and use of emerging technologies in the area of LAWS will be in compliance with international law, in particular IHL.
  • Moreover, the EU is convinced that the GGE LAWS must build on past achievements with the aim to achieve substantive outcomes. We agree that a broader common understanding on a “dual track” or “two-tier” approach to weapons systems based on emerging technologies in the area of LAWS is emerging and merits inclusion in the final report. In concrete terms, we support the fact that a distinction should be made between those weapon systems that cannot be used in accordance with international law in particular IHL and systems that include autonomous features, requiring regulation to ensure compliance with IHL.
  • Building on the 11 Guiding Principles that have already been agreed by the Group, possible consensus recommendations could include:
  • Ensuring that the development, production, deployment and use of emerging technologies in the area of LAWS will be in compliance with international law, in particular IHL;
  • Human control should be retained during the whole life-cycle of the weapons system. Adoption of a set of good practices could strengthen human-machine interaction compliance with IHL while not excluding the possibility of a legally-binding instrument;
  • Human responsibility for decisions on the use of weapons systems must be retained;
  • Human accountability must be preserved at all times and across the entire life cycle of the weapons system and appropriate measures in this regard should be implemented;
  • Tailored risk mitigation measures, including those across the life-cycle should be adopted and implemented.
  • We hope that the final report this year will reflect these points and move us forward substantially, providing a good basis for a substantive outcome. We reiterate our support to you, Mr Chair, in your efforts to achieve consensus and effective results of the work of this Group.