Lebanon

Lebanon became a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 2017, and has attended a number of CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems. Lebanon is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Arab Group within the UN, both of which support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons.

In December 2025, Lebanon 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, Lebanon 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.’

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

In December 2023, Lebanon 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.

Speaking at First Committee in 2023, Lebanon stated that, ‘the integration of Artificial Intelligence into military systems is likely to accelerate the shift toward increased and more complex forms of autonomous weapons in the near future. Therefore, the risks emanating for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and their integration with AI, requires a more thorough and targeted discussions and commitments by member states to insure meaningful human control over them.’^[1]Statement by Lebanon, 6 October 2023, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com23/statements/6Oct_Lebanon.pdf

At the 2020 United Nations General Assembly First Committee meeting, Lebanon aligned itself with the statement made by Indonesia on behalf of the NAM, in which the NAM said that ‘there is an urgent need to pursue a legally binding instrument’ on autonomous weapons systems.^[2]Statement by Indonesia on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, UN General Assembly First Committee, 09 October 2020, … Continue reading