Bulgaria

Bulgaria has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems. At the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (GGE on LAWS), Bulgaria stated that ‘the employment of autonomous systems with full degree of autonomy that perform independently of human control and outside of the IHL framework cannot be acceptable.’^[1]Statement by Bulgaria, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 29 September 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-29-09-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading On the importance of human control, Bulgaria has stressed that ‘human control must be exercised primarily over the application of force, however, it requires human control to be exerted and retained over the whole life cycle of an autonomous weapons system in order to ensure that deployment of such weapons systems fully complies with the international humanitarian law and its key principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attack.’^[2]Statement by Bulgaria, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 05 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-05-08-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

Bulgaria has not yet declared its position on the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. However, it has said that it strongly supports the work of the CCW High Contracting Parties, and the ‘efforts in our mutual quest to clarify, consider and develop aspects of an effective and comprehensive normative and operational framework on LAWS.’^[3]Statement by Bulgaria, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 06 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-06-08-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, which is ‘firmly committed to engaging in further substantive discussions and work on the different legal, technical and military aspects relevant to this group’s [GGE on LAWS] mandate on the clarification, consideration and development of aspects of the normative and operational framework bearing in mind ethical considerations.’^[4]Statement by the European Union, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 25 September 2020, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/CCW-GGE-20200925-AM_mp3.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading