Djibouti

Djibouti has participated in a number of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2016. Djibouti supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems

At the 78th UN General Assembly First Committee in 2023, Djibouti voted in favour of resolution L.56 on autonomous weapons systems, along with 163 other states. Resolution L.56 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 on autonomous weapons at First Committee in 2023, Djibouti stated that ‘it is important to emphasis the danger’ of such systems, and that an ‘international solution to counter their use’ should be found.^[1]Statement by Djibouti, UNGA First Committee, 10 October 2023. https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com23/statements/10Oct_Djibouti.pdf

On 13 April 2018, at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapons systems, Djibouti stated that it ‘would like the development of lethal weapon systems to be prohibited and continue discussions within the framework of the CCW and arrive at a new protocol banning autonomous weapons’.^[2]Statement by Djibouti, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, April 13 2018, http://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/ccw/2018/gge/statements/13April_Djibouti.pdf

Djibouti is a member of the African Group and the Arab Group within the United Nations, and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The African Group, the Arab Group and the NAM support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. Djibouti also aligned itself with a strong statement delivered by South Africa on behalf of the African group in 2018 in support of a legally binding instrument, which stated that ‘Fully autonomous weapons systems or LAWS that are not under human control should be banned, even so, before they come into existence. Until this ban is achieved, which we hope would be sooner than later, the African Group calls for a moratorium on the development and manufacture of such weapons systems without impediments or constraints on the use and transfer of the relevant emerging technologies for peaceful and civilian purposes…Given the seriousness of this issue and its possible disruptive implications, the African Group joins States and organisations recommending the conclusion of a legally binding instrument on the issue at hand at the earliest’.^[3]Statement delivered by South Africa on behalf of the African Group at the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 9-13 April 2018, … Continue reading