Grenada

Grenada is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, but it has not participated in any CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems to date. Grenada supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

At the 79th UN General Assembly, Grenada voted in favour of Resolution L.77 on lethal autonomous weapons systems. 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, Grenada, delivering a statement on behalf of CARICOM, said that autonomous weapons ‘pose new and profound challenges to international security’, and stressed the need ‘for legally binding norms that ensure human control over the use of force in armed conflict.'^[1]Statement delivered by Grenada on behalf of CARICOM, 79th UNGA First Committee, 09 October 2024

At the 2023 CARICOM conference on the human impacts of autonomous weapons, Grenada joined the CARICOM Declaration on Autonomous Weapons Systems, stating its commitment to ‘support the indispensability of meaningful human control over the use of force and thereby encourage the pursuit of an international legally binding instrument which incorporates prohibitions and regulations on AWS’, and to ‘collaborate on endeavours aimed at negotiating an international legally binding instrument that prohibits unpredictable or uncontrollable AWS capable of using force without meaningful human control, and prohibit those designed or employed to apply force against persons, while implementing regulations for other forms of AWS’.^[2]CARICOM Declaration on Autonomous Weapons Systems, https://www.caricom-aws2023.com/_files/ugd/b69acc_c1ffb97ed9024930a3205ae4e34c1b45.pdf

In December 2023, Grenada 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.

Grenada is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.