France

France has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014.

France does not support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. France supports the creation of a non-binding ‘normative and operational framework’^[1]Statement by France and Germany, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 21 September 2020, … Continue reading and has said that any ‘future normative and operational framework should apply to lethal autonomous weapons systems only.’^[2]Written contribution by France to the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 2021, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/ccw/2021/gge/documents/France.pdf

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

France is involved in the development of weapon systems with autonomous functions.^[5]See: PAX (2019), State of AI: Artificial intelligence, the military and increasingly autonomous weapons, https://paxforpeace.nl/media/download/state-of-artificial-intelligence–pax-report.pdf