Nicaragua

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

In December 2025, Nicaragua abstained from voting on 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, Nicaragua abstained from voting on 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.’

In December 2023, Nicaragua 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.

Nicaragua has raised concerns over the possibility of ‘refining, developing and using lethal autonomous weapons systems, otherwise known as killer robots, that would have the capacity to detect, select and attach a target without any human intervention at all.’^[1]Statement by Nicaragua, Fifth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 12 December 2016, … Continue reading It has also emphasised that ‘human control is to be kept in the most important decision of armed conflict, which include all decisions related to the selection of targets to be attacked. Machines are no replacement for human beings when qualitative aspects are involved.’^[2]Statement by Nicaragua, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 13 April 2018, https://conf.unog.ch/digitalrecordings/index.html?embed=-h&mrid=6026D2B0-A933-4353-949C-5777F60A117D

At the 2018 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) meeting, Nicaragua stated that ‘we believe that we have the necessary elements so as to move from an explanatory debate to a more focused approach; given that it is essential for us to adopt practical options that would allow us to make headway, as swiftly as possible, towards a legally binding instrument’ on autonomous weapons systems.^[3]Statement by Nicaragua, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 13 April 2018, https://conf.unog.ch/digitalrecordings/index.html?embed=-h&mrid=6026D2B0-A933-4353-949C-5777F60A117D Nicaragua is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. The NAM has stated that there is an ‘urgent need to pursue a legally binding instrument under the Convention that will contain prohibitions and regulations for addressing the humanitarian and international security challenges posed by emerging technologies in the area of LAWS.’^[4]Statement by the Non-Aligned Movement, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 13 December 2021, … Continue reading