From today onwards, Belgium will chair the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems, the so-called “Killer Robots”. This group of experts, which meets within the framework of the Convention on certain conventional weapons in Geneva, aims to clarify the legal, technological and military issues raised by these new technologies, mainly with regard to respect for international humanitarian law.
At the end of 2019, the GGE adopted eleven guiding principles with a view to establishing a normative and operational framework on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS). Belgium played a leading role in the group’s work, in particular by proposing a guiding principle on human-machine interaction which today represents the keystone of the future normative and operational framework.
The Belgian Presidency will endeavor to deepen the discussions on the substance with a view to reaching consensual recommendations on the normative and operational framework, in accordance with the mandate of the GGE, which will then be proposed for adoption at the 6th Review Conference of the Convention on certain conventional weapons.
