Palestine

Palestine is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), and has participated in all CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2015. Palestine supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. Palestine is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and of the Arab Group, both of which support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Palestine co-sponsored 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.’

During the 80th Session of the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2025, Palestine warned ‘As we have witnessed the horror of its use in Gaza, AI‑assisted systems including autonomous weapons systems can accelerate targeting cycles, generate expansive target lists, and heighten the risk of misidentification and disproportionate harm to civilians. The State of Palestine underscores that meaningful human control must be preserved over the use of force at all times…In this vein, we support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapon systems that: (1) prohibits systems that cannot be subject to meaningful human control and all systems designed to target persons; and (2) establishes positive obligations and regulations on all other systems to ensure effective human judgement, predictability, and accountability.’ ^[1]Statement by State of Palestine, UN General Assembly First Committee, 13 October 2025, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com25/statements/13Oct_Palestine.pdf

At the CCW GGE on LAWS in September 2025, Palestine joined a group of 42 states delivering a joint statement calling for the group to begin negotiations of an instrument on the basis of its ‘rolling text,’ and stating that they were ready to do this.

At the 79th UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, co-sponsored 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.’

In 2024, the State of Palestine 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.’

At the 2023 meeting of the CCW GGE on LAWS, Palestine said that, in order to deal with the risks posed by autonomous weapons systems, ‘prohibitions and regulations are required. Prohibitions are required on the development and use of autonomous weapon systems that 1) are designed or used to target humans directly; 2) cannot be used with meaningful human control. Meaningful human control requires that the autonomous weapon system must be predictable, reliable, understandable, and explainable and traceable. Regulations including both positive obligations and limits are required to ensure that autonomous weapon systems can be used with meaningful human control. The combination of prohibitions and regulations should be in the form of an international legally binding instrument.'^[2]Statement by the State of Palestine, CCW GGE on LAWS, 6 March 2023, … Continue reading

At the 78th session of the UN General Assembly First Committee in 2023, Palestine stated that autonomous weapons systems ‘designed and used against humans are unacceptable, morally and legally, they must be banned and eliminated. We must control all remaining autonomous weapons systems, just like the UN Secretary-General and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross called for in their joint appeal last week.All countries must start, as soon as possible, their negotiations to reach a legally binding instrument to clearly ban and restrict the use of autonomous systems.’^[3]Statement by Palestine, UNGA First Committee, 11 October 2023. https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k17/k17yuh91q6

At the 2021 meeting of the CCW GGE on LAWS, Palestine stated that ‘the unacceptable risks posed by lethal autonomous weapons systems necessitate the creation of a legally binding instrument’.^[4]Statement by Palestine, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-03-08-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading Palestine has also stated that fully autonomous weapons systems must be ‘outright prohibited’, and so must ‘unpredictable autonomous weapons systems, as they cannot be meaningfully controlled’, and noted that ‘even if they operate under meaningful human control, some autonomous weapons are still wholly unacceptable, both legally and morally, and must also be prohibited. This includes all LAWS designed or used to target human beings.’^[5]Statement by Palestine, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 03 August 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS-03-08-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading Palestine is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which also supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.^[6]Statement by the Non-Aligned Movement, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 13 December 2021, … Continue reading

At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in October 2022, Palestine said that ‘The rapid development of autonomous weapons systems poses ethical, legal, humanitarian, moral, as well as international peace and security related challenges that require the urgent development of a legally binding instrument. The Joint Statement on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems delivered by Austria on behalf of 70 states, including the State of Palestine, recognizes these challenges, and the need to maintain human responsibility and accountability, and for internationally agreed rules and limits, including prohibitions and regulations.'^[7]Statement by Palestine, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 24 October 2022, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com22/statements/24Oct_Palestine.pdf

Speaking on behalf of a group of ten states during the 2021 meeting of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), Palestine stated that ‘all autonomous weapons pose serious risks to compliance with IHL’, whether classified as ‘lethal or non-lethal’, noting that ‘lethality is not an intrinsic characteristic of a weapon system, but rather an effect, a manner of use’.^[8]Statement by Palestine on behalf of Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Sierra Leone, Uruguay, El Salvador and Palestine, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 24 September 2021, … Continue reading

Palestine has also noted that autonomous weapons systems present ‘wider ethical and humanitarian challenges that transcend the legal framework under IHL’, including challenges to human dignity, the loss of human agency in decisions to use force, and the erosion of moral responsibility for these decisions.’^[9]Statement by Palestine on behalf of Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Sierra Leone, Uruguay, El Salvador and Palestine, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 24 September 2021, … Continue reading