Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems

The GGE on LAWS started its work in 2017 and has convened annually since then. It is open to all High Contracting Parties and non-state parties to the CCW, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Within its mandate, the GGE meets several times a year and produces reports which are submitted to the annual meetings of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW. Over the years, the group agreed on several guiding principles:

• International humanitarian law applies fully to all weapons systems, including the potential development and use of LAWS.
• Accountability for developing, deploying, and using emerging weapons systems must be ensured in accordance with applicable international law, including through the operation of such systems within a responsible chain of human command and control.
• Human-machine interaction should ensure that the potential use of weapons systems based on LAWS is in compliance with applicable international law, in particular international humanitarian law (IHL).
• Human responsibility for decisions on the use of weapons systems must be retained since accountability cannot be transferred to machines. This should be considered across the entire life cycle of the weapons system.

The GGE’s guiding principles were endorsed by the High Contracting Parties to the CCW at their December 2019 meeting.

While the group has managed to advance these and similar principles, the most divergent discussions are held with regard to potential policy options for addressing the humanitarian and international security challenges posed by LAWS. Options discussed by the group so far (and outlined in the 2018 and 2019 reports) include:

• A legally binding instrument stipulating prohibitions and regulations on LAWS.
• A political declaration that would outline principles such as the necessity of human control in the use of force and the importance of human accountability, and with elements of transparency and technology review.
• Further discussions on the human-machine interface and the application of existing international legal obligations.
• No further legal measures; the IHL is fully applicable to potential LAWS.

Despite disagreements on the policy options, the group agreed that these discussions and any potential policy measures should not hamper progress in or access to peaceful uses of intelligent autonomous technologies.