Brazil

Brazil has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems.

Brazil supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in October 2022, Brazil stressed ‘the need of a regulation that recognises the centrality of human control in the development and use of autonomous systems, in accordance with the norms and principles of International Humanitarian Law.'^[1]Statement by Brazil, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 21 October 2022, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com22/statements/21Oct_Brazil.pdf

At the 2020 United Nations General Assembly First Committee, Brazil said that ‘the historical window for adopting an appropriate legal framework to regulate the issue of lethal autonomous weapons systems is narrowing quickly. Brazil believes that a legally binding instrument is the best option to ensure human control over critical functions in autonomous systems, which is paramount to prevent violations to international law.’^[2]Statement by Brazil, UN General Assembly First Committee, 12 October 2020, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com20/statements/12Oct_Brazil.pdf At the 2020 meeting of the CCW GGE on LAWS, Brazil stated that its position ‘ is crystal clear; there is a need for a legally binding instrument regulating lethal autonomous weapons systems. The rapid pace of technological development urges regulation before and not after deploying these new weapons. It is urgent to focus our energies towards building a legal framework to ensure the compliance of assistance with the international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the principle of humanity and the dictates of the public concerns.’^[3]Statement by Brazil, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 21 September 2020, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/CCW-GGE-20200921-PM_mp3.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

At the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (GGE on LAWS), Brazil stated that ‘without meaningful human control, the development, deployment, and use of autonomous weapons systems that can delegate decisions on duplication and execution of force to algorithms would undermine international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and in particular, violate the principle of human dignity.’^[4]Statement by Brazil on behalf of Chile, Mexico and Brazil, GGE on LAWS, 24 September 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-24-09-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the … Continue reading Brazil has also highlighted the risks of increasing autonomy in weapons systems, and said that ‘the characteristics and capabilities of AI enabled technology allow them to process and compute large quantities of information, they can systematically produce inputs for decision and action; however, the backside of this technology is that it can systematically increase unpredictability, escalate risks and perpetuate biases.’^[5]Statement by Brazil on behalf of Chile, Mexico and Brazil, GGE on LAWS, 27 September 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-27-09-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the … Continue reading