Czechia

Czechia is a member of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and has participated in all CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems. Czechia has not declared its position on the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Czechia 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 79th UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, Czechia 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.’

In December 2023, Czechia 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.

In a statement at the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) it stated there is a ‘clear understanding that the overall responsibility of LAWS should remain in the hands of humans.’^[1]Statement by Czechia, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 13 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-13-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in 2022, Czechia stated that ‘it is also important to maintain the Convention responsive to new technological advances. We therefore welcome further work on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). In our view, it is indispensable for the CCW High Contracting Parties to have sufficient guidance on how to ensure that any new weapon, means or methods of warfare are in compliance with the International Humanitarian Law, which should under any circumstances remain our primary objective.'^[2]Statement by Czechia, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 21 October 2022, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com22/statements/21Oct_Czechia.pdf

It has aligned itself with statements by the European Union regarding the need for normative and operational framework on autonomous weapons systems. In a statement at the United Nations General Assembly First Committee in 2020, the European Union said that it ‘will support the GGE in the clarification, consideration and development of aspects of the normative and operational framework for emerging technologies in the area of LAWS.’^[3]Statement by the European Union, UN General Assembly First Committee, 09 October 2020, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com20/statements/9Oct_EU.pdf