El Salvador

El Salvador has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014. El Salvador supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, El Salvador 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, El Salvador 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.’

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

In December 2023, El Salvador 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 77th UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2022, El Salvador stated that ‘It is concerning for El Salvador that after long years of discussions on systems of LAWS we still do not have a comprehensive framework of restrictions on the use of this kind of technology.'^[1]Statement by El Salvador, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 07 October 2022, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1e/k1ea906xnp; please note that this link leads to the full recording of the … Continue reading.

El Salvador has also been part of multiple collective statements in the CCW on the issue of autonomous weapons systems. In a group statement during the 2021 session of theCCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), El Salvador expressed its concern that ‘autonomous weapons systems could lead to a vacuum in accountability, (as) artificial intelligence has no agency and moral obligations. Only humans could be held accountable and responsible for the use of force under international law.’^[2]Statement by Philippines on behalf of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Sierra Leone, Uruguay and Palestine, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, … Continue reading

El Salvador has ‘condemned the use’ of autonomous weapons systems and stated that giving a machine the responsibility ‘to decide about a person’s life is of great concern, and raises great ethical and legal challenges.’^[3]Statement by El Salvador, UN General Assembly First Committee, 29 October 2018, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1g/k1ggqp6nt7; please note that this link leads to the full recording of the relevant … Continue reading At the United Nations General Assembly First Committee meeting in 2018, El Salvador stated that it aspires to achieve ‘the approval of a legally binding instrument that allows its (autonomous weapon systems) control, and that guarantees respect for human rights and the well-being of humans.’^[4]Statement by El Salvador, UN General Assembly First Committee, 29 October 2018,https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1g/k1ggqp6nt7; please note that this link leads to the full recording of the relevant … Continue reading