Greece

Greece is a member of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and has participated in all CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems. Greece supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

At the CCW Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) in August 2026, Greece joined a group of 47 states delivering a joint statement stating that the text of elements of an instrument under discussion by the Group was a sufficient basis to move forward to negotiations on an instrument, and that they were ready to do this.

In December 2025, Greece 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, Greece 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.’

Speaking at the UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, Greece said that the compliance of autonomous weapons systems with international humanitarian law and its principles ‘remains dubious’, and reiterated its support for the two-tier approach of prohibitions and restrictions.^[1]Statement by Greece, 79th UNGA First Committee, 24 October 2024

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

In December 2023, Greece 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 meeting in October 2022, Greece stressed ‘the importance of the 11 guiding principles which constitute the foundation of the normative and operational framework for emerging technologies in the area of LAWS. We remain strong supporters of the principles that the use of lethal force must be accountable for and that human control must always be exerted over application of this lethal force.'^[2]Statement by Greece, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 12 October 2022, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k14/k14eirk6hg; please note that this link leads to the full recording & transcript … Continue reading

At the 2019 meeting of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, Greece stated that ‘it is important to ensure that commanders and operators will remain on the loop of the decision making process in order to apply the appropriate human judgment over the use of force, for reasons not only related to accountability, but also-and-mainly to the protection of human dignity over the decision on life or death.’^[3]Statement by Greece, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 26 March 2019, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/ccw/2019/gge/statements/26March_Greece5a.pdf

Greece is a member of the European Union, which supports the creation of a ‘normative and operational framework’ on autonomous weapons systems.^[4]Statement by the European Union, UN General Assembly First Committee, 09 October 2020,https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com20/statements/9Oct_EU.pdf