Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Mr. President,
I am delivering the following statement on behalf of 50 states: Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, New Zealand, Naoero, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Portugal, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, and my own country, Ireland.
Chair, the three-year mandate of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Geneva recently concluded under the able stewardship of Ambassador Robert in den Bosch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Group successfully formulated, and adopted by consensus, a set of elements of an instrument, without prejudging its nature, and other possible measures to address emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems.
The text reflects significant areas of convergence achieved by delegations over the past three years, building upon over a decade of deliberations within the Group of Governmental Experts. We particularly welcome the final report’s confirmation of the human involvement needed for compliance with international law in armed conflict, as well as some concrete and operational measures in this regard.
It also contains the first agreed working characterisation of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, clarified through its accompanying Chair’s interpretative declaration. These are important elements to build on. While we are disappointed that some crucial elements of the Chair’s strong earlier drafts were not ultimately retained in the final report, these issues can be addressed in the next steps.
In this regard, we consider that the final report successfully fulfilled the mandate of this Group of Governmental Experts and that the set of elements serves as a solid and sufficient basis for the establishment of a GGE mandate to negotiate an instrument on lethal autonomous weapons systems within the CCW. Given the urgency of the issue, we call on all High Contracting Parties to the CCW to takethat logical next step.
As we now turn to the next phase of seeking progress in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems at the forthcoming CCW Review Conference, we stand ready to engage constructively with other High Contracting Parties, and the President-designate of the Review Conference and Chair-designate of its Main Committee II, to agree on an ambitious negotiating mandate on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems this November.
We reaffirm our readiness to work collaboratively to secure such an outcome.
Thank you.