Nigeria

Nigeria is not currently a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW); while Nigeria signed the CCW in 1982, it has not yet acceded to the Convention. However, Nigeria has participated in a number of CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems.

Nigeria supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. In a joint statement with ten other states, delivered at the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), Nigeria called for ‘an all-inclusive approach to adopt a legally binding instrument to ensure the prohibition of autonomous weapons systems with a view to upholding human dignity and avoiding further international instability.’ ^[1]Statement by Sierra Leone on behalf ofArgentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Peru, Sierra Leone, Palestine and Uruguay, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on … Continue reading

Nigeria is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the African Group, both of which support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the 2020 UN General Assembly First Committee meeting, the NAM stated that ‘ Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) raise a number of ethical, legal, moral, technical, as well as international peace and security related questions, which should be thoroughly deliberated and examined in the context of conformity to international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law’, and said that the NAM agrees that ‘there is an urgent need to pursue a legally-binding instrument on LAWS.’^[2]Statement by Indonesia on behalf of the NAM, UN General Assembly First Committee, 09 October 2020, … Continue reading