Ecuador

Ecuador is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Ecuador supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Ecuador co-sponsored and 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, Ecuador 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, Ecuador co-sponsored and 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, Ecuador 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.

At the 2023 CCW GGE on LAWS, Ecuador stated that ‘we believe that we urgently need to start negotiations on a legally binding instrument with prohibitions and regulations in order to deal with the challenges posed by these weapons from the point of view of IHL, international law and International Human Rights Law.'^[1]Statement by Ecuador, 2023 CCW GGE on LAWS, 15 May … Continue reading

At the Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in December 2021, Ecuador said that ‘we need to go from a level of debate [on autonomous weapon systems] to negotiating a binding instrument regulating those weapons or banning them.’ Further elaborating on the specific need for a legally binding instrument, Ecuador stated that ‘regulation is vital in order to address the risks posed by these weapons, particularly regarding its impact on international humanitarian law and international human rights law’, and vital to ‘allay the serious and justified fears’ surrounding autonomous weapons systems and the increasing dehumanisation of warfare.^[2]Statement by Ecuador, Sixth Review Conference of the CCW, 13 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-13-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading

During the UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in 2020, Ecuador said ‘We reject the growing use and improvement of aerial vehicles, unmanned artillery, as well as lethal autonomous weapons. The militarization of AI presents security challenges, international, transparency, control, proportionality, and responsibility.’^[3]Statement by Ecuador, UN General Assembly First Committee, 12 October 2020, https://front.un-arm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ecuador-es.pdf