Autonomous Weapons Meetings

At the meeting of states parties of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in November 2013, governments decided to convene a four-day meeting of experts on the topic of fully autonomous weapons. The CCW, adopted in 1980, regulates weapons that are not derived from chemical, nuclear, or biological sources. Meetings of its states parties take place on the Convention's protocols and on specific issues states decide to take up.

Since 2014, states parties of the CCW have discussed how to address the threat of autonomous weapon systems in working groups. In 2016, the Fifth Review Conference of CCW decided to begin a formal process on this in 2017, establishing the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on what it calls Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS).

BROWSE ALL EDITIONS OF THE CCW REPORTS

2021

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2020

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2019

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2018

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2017

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2016

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2015

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The GGE meetings have focused on building a common understanding about the meaning of human control and the risks of autonomous weapons. Most governments, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, have reached the conclusion that humans must maintain control over programming, development, activation, and/or operational phases of a weapon system. But a handful of states that are working to develop these technologies—including the United States, Russia, Israel, South Korea, and Australia—have so far blocked initiatives for a legally-binding instrument and have even made it difficult to develop more informal agreements.

Reaching Critical Will has provided coverage of the following meetings on autonomous weapons

2021 CCW Group of Governmental experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems

2020 CCW Group of Governmental experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems

2019 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems

2018 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems

2017 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems 

2015 meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapons

2014 meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapons

2014 Human Rights Council discussion on autonomous weapon systems

2013 Human Rights Council discussion on autonomous weapon systems