Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Antigua and Barbuda supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapon systems. Antigua and Barbuda is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and CARICOM, which both support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Antigua and Barbuda voted in favour of UN General Assembly Resolution 80/57 on lethal autonomous weapons systems. Mindful of the challenges and concerns autonomous weapons systems raise from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives, Resolution 80/57 stresses the urgent need for the CCW to address the challenges and concerns posed by autonomous weapons systems, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties of the CCW to ‘work towards completing the set of elements for an instrument being developed within the mandate of the Group of Governmental Experts, with a view to future negotiation.’

At the 79th UN General Assembly, Antigua and Barbuda co-sponsored and voted in favour of Resolution L.77 on lethal autonomous weapons systems. Resolution L.77 raises concerns about the ‘negative consequences and impact of autonomous weapon systems on global security and regional and international stability’ and stresses ‘the importance of the role of humans in the use of force to ensure responsibility and accountability and for States to comply with international law.’ It also notes ‘the repeated calls by the Secretary-General to urgently conclude negotiations of a legally binding instrument with prohibitions and regulations for autonomous weapons systems, in line with a two-tier approach.’ The Resolution will convene open informal consultations in 2025 over two days in New York, ‘to consider the report of the Secretary-General in full complementarity with and in a manner that supports the fulfilment of the mandate of the Group of Governmental Experts in order to further the international community’s understanding of the issues involved by discussing the full range of views received, including proposals and relevant aspects raised in the report that may thus far not have been discussed in detail in the Group of Governmental Experts.’

At the 78th UN General Assembly First Committee in 2023, Antigua and Barbuda co-sponsored resolution L.56 on autonomous weapons systems along with 163 other states. Resolution L.56 stressed the ‘urgent need for the international community to address the challenges and concerns raised by autonomous weapons systems’, and mandated the UN Secretary-General to prepare a report, reflecting the views of member and observer states on autonomous weapons systems and ways to address the related challenges and concerns they raise from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives and on the role of humans in the use of force.

At the 2023 CARICOM conference on the human impacts of autonomous weapons, Antigua and 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’.^[1]CARICOM Declaration on Autonomous Weapons Systems, https://www.caricom-aws2023.com/_files/ugd/b69acc_c1ffb97ed9024930a3205ae4e34c1b45.pdf

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.’ In the same forum, Antigua joined ‘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