Panama

Panama participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings 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) meeting, Panama stated that ‘the human race has and continues to witness the dehumanising effects of war, and as such the autonomy of these weapons would only exasperate and spell eminent doom for the human race as we know it. The constant tussle to either retain or outlaw the atrocious activities of these weapon systems demonstrate the dwindling relevance attached to human life.’^[1]Statement by Sierra Leone on behalf of Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Peru, Sierra Leone, Palestine and Uruguay, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on … Continue reading

Panama supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the Sixth Review Conference of the CCW, it said that ‘the only adequate timely response to address humanitarian, ethical, and legal concerns arising from autonomous weapons systems is of a legally binding instrument, including prohibitions and limitations of a specific nature on the design, development, production, deployment and use of these weapons.’^[2]Statement by Panama, Sixth Review Conference of the CCW, 13 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-13-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full … Continue reading The joint statement of eleven states delivered at the 2021 GGE on LAWS also 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.’^[3]Statement by Sierra Leone on behalf of Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Peru, Sierra Leone, Palestine and Uruguay, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on … Continue reading

At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in October 2022, Panama noted Panama and Austria presented ‘a draft Resolution, approved by consensus at the Human Rights Council in Geneva at the end of last week, in which the Advisory Committee of the Council of Human Rights, prepare a study that examines the implications for Human Rights that new technologies may have in the military field, taking into account the ongoing discussions in the United Nations system, and it was requested that it be presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2025.'^[4]Statement by Panama, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 12 October 2022, https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com22/statements/12Oct_Panama.pdf