Malta

Malta has participated in some Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons. Malta supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapon systems.

In December 2025, Malta co-sponsored and 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, Malta co-sponsored and 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, Malta said that ‘it will continue to advocate that human control must be retained over autonomous weapons systems based on emerging technologies.'^[1]Statement by Malta, 79th UNGA First Committee, 09 October 2024

In 2024, Malta endorsed the Chair’s Summary of the 2024 Vienna conference ‘Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation’ . The Chair’s Summary affirms the ‘strong commitment’ of the endorsing states to ‘work with urgency and with all interested stakeholders for an international legal instrument to regulate autonomous weapons systems.’

In December 2023, Malta 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.

During First Committee in 2023, Malta stated that it ‘will continue to advocate for a responsible use of emerging technologies, including addressing concerns about the challenges related to the developments of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)’, and stressed ‘the need to ensure that the development, production, deployment and use of emerging technologies in the area of LAWS must be in compliance with international law, in particular IHL.’^[2]Statement by Malta, UNGA First Committee, 3 October 2023, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com23/statements/3Oct_Malta.pdf

It spoke for the first time at the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (GGE on LAWS) meeting, stating that it ‘remains concerned with the rapid technological advancement especially in AI, where as a result, lethal autonomous weapons systems are today capable of functioning with a lesser degree of human control or none.’^[3]Statement by Malta, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, August 2021, https://documents.unoda.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Malta-GGE-LAWS-3-13-August-2021.docx In the same meeting, Malta also expressed concern over ‘such developments especially for world security, for unlike traditional arms, LAWS can independently search for and engage targets based on programmed constraints and descriptions.’^[4]Statement by Malta, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, August 2021, https://documents.unoda.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Malta-GGE-LAWS-3-13-August-2021.docx 

At the first session of CCW GGE on LAWS in 2021, it said that ‘unpredictable autonomous weapon systems should be prohibited, it would be important for other autonomous weapons systems to be regulated.’^[5]Statement by Malta, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, August 2021, https://documents.unoda.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Malta-GGE-LAWS-3-13-August-2021.docx At the 2022 CCW GGE on LAWS, in a statement along with 22 other countries, Malta said that there is an ‘urgent need for adequate rules and limits on the development, deployment, and use of autonomous weapon systems to ensure sufficient human involvement and oversight.’^[6]Working Paper on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems(LAWS) on behalf of Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Ireland, Kazakhstan, … Continue reading