INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS ON LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS
Joint Statement by Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Republic of Korea, Romania, and the United Kingdom.
Statement delivered by Sean Minehan, Second Secretary, Australian Mission to the United Nations
12 May 2025
Chair,
I make this statement on behalf of Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Republic of Korea, Romania, the United Kingdom, and my own country, Australia.
We thank the chair, Ambassador in den Bosch, for his briefing on the progress being made in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS).
In particular, it was promising to hear from the Chair about the GGE’s elaborations on its mandate to formulate, by consensus, a set of elements of an instrument and other possible measures to address emerging technologies in the area of LAWS. In the course of the GGE, delegations have worked assiduously to build a shared understanding of such issues as the application of international humanitarian law to all weapons systems, the need to retain human responsibility for decisions on the use of weapons systems, and to ensure accountability for the use of emerging weapons systems in the framework of the CCW.
The last session in March saw positive progress toward the fulfilment of the GGE’s mandate through substantive and focused discussions. You have the support of each of our delegations in your efforts, Chair, including in the upcoming intersessional period and at the September 2025 session.
These informal consultations are an opportunity to inform the broader UN membership of the important work being undertaken in the GGE on LAWS, and to invite States who are not yet High Contracting Parties to join the CCW.
In this regard, we welcome Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago as the States who most recently acceded to the CCW and welcome their engagement in the LAWS GGE.
Our countries actively support the Chair and contribute to the GGE because we believe it represents the international community’s best opportunity to make progress on addressing the challenges and concerns raised by emerging technologies in the area of LAWS.
The GGE has an impressive foundation of work and is where the international community is already working, as demonstrated by the Chair’s briefing.
The CCW makes an essential contribution to the protection of civilians and combatants from the worst effects of certain conventional weapons.
Our countries are clear, including in many of our submissions to the Secretary-General’s report on LAWS, that a process outside the GGE would take us backwards rather than forwards in addressing the very complex issues that are being met with the military, technical, and legal expertise of the GGE.
The GGE is the international community’s best chance to develop an outcome on LAWS that could achieve universal acceptance by States. It is also a forum open for observers, including States who are not yet High Contracting Parties to the CCW.
Therefore, we appreciate the articulation by the co-sponsors of the UNGA resolution mandating these informal consultations that they will be convened ‘in a manner that supports the fulfilment of the mandate of’ the LAWS GGE.
I thank you.