Benin

Benin has participated in a number of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014.  Benin is a member of the African Group in the United Nations, and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Benin supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems, as does the African Group and the Non-Aligned Movement. Benin spoke on behalf of the African Group at the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) in April 2018. At this meeting, the African Group stated that ‘fully autonomous weapons systems or LAWS that are not under human control should be banned, even so, before they come into existence.’ Further, the African Group called for ‘a moratorium on the development and manufacture of such weapons systems without impediments or constraints on the use and transfer of the relevant emerging technologies for peaceful and civilian purposes.’ ^[1]Statement by Benin on behalf of the African Group, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS,  … Continue reading

At the third session of the 2021 CCW GGE, the African Group said that autonomous weapons systems raise a number of ‘ethical, legal, moral and technical questions’, and that it looks forward to ‘concrete policy recommendations including elements of a legally binding instrument, stipulating prohibitions and regulations’ on autonomous weapons systems.^[2]Statement by the African Group, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 3rd December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-03-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading