Cyprus

Cyprus is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Cyprus has not yet spoken on the issue of autonomous weapons systems.

Cyprus is a member state of the European Union, which stated at the 2020 United Nations General Assembly First Committee meeting that ‘human beings must make the decisions with regard to the use of lethal force, exert control over lethal weapons systems they use, and remain accountable for decisions over the use of force in order to ensure compliance with International Law, in particular International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.’^[1]Statement by the European Union, UN General Assembly First Committee, 04 October 2021, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com21/statements/4Oct_EU.pdf

Cyprus has not yet declared its position on the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. The European Union supports the development of a ‘normative and operational for emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapon systems.’^[2]Statement by the European Union, UN General Assembly First Committee, 09 October 2020, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmamentfora/1com/1com20/statements/9Oct_EU.pdf