Chile

Chile has participated in most Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meetings on autonomous weapons systems. Chile supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Chile 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 CCW GGE on LAWS in September 2025, Chile joined a group of 42 states delivering a joint statement calling for the group to begin negotiations of an instrument on the basis of its ‘rolling text,’ and stating that they were ready to do this.

At the 79th UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, Chile voted in favour of Draft Resolution L.77 on lethal autonomous weapons systems. Draft 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.’

Speaking at the UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, Chile emphasised that the automation of weapons is ‘a clear threat to the safety and security of civilians’. ^[1]Statement by Chile, 79th UNGA First Committee, 24 October 2024 In 2024, Chile endorsed the Chair’s Summary of the 2024 Vienna conference ‘Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation’ . The Chair’s Summary affirms the ‘strong commitment’ of the endorsing states to ‘work with urgency and with all interested stakeholders for an international legal instrument to regulate autonomous weapons systems.’

Chile made a submission to the UN Secretary-General pursuant to Resolution 78/241 on autonomous weapons systems in June 2024.

In December 2023, Chile voted in support of UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241 on lethal autonomous weapons systems. Resolution 78/241 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.

Speaking at First Committee in 2023, Chile stated that ‘We stress that the automation of machines is a clear threat to the safety and security of civilians. We therefore support the functioning and the work of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems. In this regard, we consider it a step forward to create a binding legal binding legal mechanism to regulate this matter in a realistic, efficient and effective way.^[2]Statement by Chile, UNGA First Committee, 23 October 2023.https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com23/statements/23Oct_Chile.pdf, Translated with DeepL.com

Chile has stressed that the moral, legal, and ethical implications of ‘dehumanised war at the loss of significant human control’ necessitates a ‘legally binding instrument with prohibitions and restrictions agreed internationally.’^[3]Statement by Chile, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 13 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-13-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note … Continue reading At the Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in December 2021, Chile referred to the ‘need for regulation in order to control these technologies, rather than have them control us.’^[4]Statement by Chile, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 13 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-13-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note … Continue reading

Chile has further expressed its concern that autonomous weapon systems pose ‘particular challenges to the human elements, in particular in terms of human control concerning the use of lethal force.’^[5]Statement by Chile, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 22 September 2020, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/CCW-GGE-20200922-AM_mp3.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

Chile is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which also supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument. NAM, in its statement at the Sixth Review Conference of the CCW in December 2021, stated that there is an ‘urgent need to pursue a legally binding instrument under the Convention that will contain prohibitions and regulations for addressing the humanitarian and international security challenges posed by emerging technologies in the area of LAWS.’^[6]Statement by the Non-Aligned Movement, Sixth review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 13 December 2021, … Continue reading