Intervention by Estonia delivered at the 2017 Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) at the way ahead panel
16.11.2017
2017 Group of Governmental Experts
on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)
Intervention by ESTONIA
Item 5: General exchange of views :
The way ahead
Geneva, 16
November 2017
Thank you, Mr Chairman!
Estonia has carefully considered the
views expressed during this meeting by the distinguished representative of
states and civil society organisations. We thank all of the participants for
their thoughtful interventions. We extend our special thanks to the states that
prepared working papers and to the chair for his leadership and guidance.
Estonia firmly believes that any
weapon system, irrespective of its level of autonomy, must only be used in
strict compliance with international law, in particular international
humanitarian law. States must ensure that the weapon systems that they develop
or acquire are capable of being used consistently with their obligations under
international law, and are indeed so used in practice.
In terms of the way forward, Estonia
makes the following observations:
A number of states have indicated
the significance of maintaining meaningful human control over weapon systems or
exercising appropriate levels of human judgment. It is not entirely clear,
however, what these phrases means to individual states. Thus, Estonia would
support a further discussion where states and civil society organisations would
more fully express their views as to what is required in order for a weapon
system to be considered as being under meaningful human control.
A number of states have highlighted
the importance of conducting legal reviews of new weapons as an implementation
mechanism of IHL. Estonia would support a further discussion on best practices
of weapon reviews, especially as concerns technologically complex weapon
systems.
Estonia believes that a GGE of the
CCW is the best forum for conducting these discussions.
Thank you, Mr Chairman!
 
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