France

France is a member of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and has participated in all CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014. France has not declared its position on the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

During the March 2026 session of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems (GGE on LAWS), France stated ‘This new [rolling text] draft goes in the right direction. We are closer to our goal, which is by consensus to draft a set of elements of an instrument, which I hope will lead to a negotiation of a new instrument within the CCW.’ ^[1]Statement by France, CCW GGE on LAWS, 2 March 2026, … Continue reading

In December 2025, France 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, France 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, France 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.’

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

In December 2023, France 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, France stated that it is ‘ready to negotiate’, and that it is in favour of a mandate for negotiation for the GGE, noting that it is possible to negotiate measures without defining the nature of the final instrument.^[2]Statement by France, 2023 CCW GGE on LAWS, 17 May 2023, … Continue reading

At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting, France stated that ‘This is why we must intensify our efforts in the CCW to find answers to the challenges that are posed by LAWS. The aim is to achieve a balance between military needs and humanitarian principles so that we can collectively build an operational and normative framework that would be applicable to these emerging technologies and LAWS. We must ensure that the development and use of potentially lethal weapons systems integrating a degree of autonomy is done in full respect of international humanitarian law.'^[3]Statement by France, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 20 October 2022, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1o/k1o8qmabgj; please note that this link leads to the full recording & transcript … Continue reading

At the July 2022 meeting of the GGE on LAWS, in a working paper submitted with six other states, France stated that ‘the GGE should seek consensus on a two-tier approach, based on the recognition that lethal autonomous weapons systems that cannot comply with IHL are de facto prohibited and should not be developed or used, and that further work is needed to operationalize this commitment at national level.'^[4]Working paper submitted by Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden to the 2022 Chair of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of … Continue reading