Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). At the 77^th United Nations General Assembly First Committee, Antigua and Barbuda said that ‘autonomous weapon systems change the relationship between people and technology by handing over life and death decision making to machines. They disempower, disconnect and dislocate humans in the use of force and raise fundamental ethical and legal concerns.’^[1]Statement by Antigua and Barbuda, 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee, 12 October 2022, … Continue reading

Antigua and Barbuda supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapon systems. While raising concerns regarding compliance of automated weapon systems (AWS) with principles of international humanitarian law, it said that it ‘joins the call for clear international rules to govern this upcoming threat .’^[2]Statement by Antigua and Barbuda, 77th Session of the United nations general Assembly first Committee, 12 October 2022, … Continue reading

At the 2023 CARICOM conference on the human impacts of autonomous weapons, Antigua & Barbuda joined the CARICOM Declaration on Autonomous Weapons Systems, stating its commitment to ‘support the indispensability of meaningful human control over the use of force and thereby encourage the pursuit of an international legally binding instrument which incorporates prohibitions and regulations on AWS’, and to ‘collaborate on endeavours aimed at negotiating an international legally binding instrument that prohibits unpredictable or uncontrollable AWS capable of using force without meaningful human control, and prohibit those designed or employed to apply force against persons, while implementing regulations for other forms of AWS’.^[3]CARICOM Declaration on Autonomous Weapons Systems, https://www.caricom-aws2023.com/_files/ugd/b69acc_c1ffb97ed9024930a3205ae4e34c1b45.pdf