Panama

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

During the March 2026 session of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems (GGE on LAWS), Panama stated that it considers ‘that the work done by the GGE on this rolling text is in line with its current mandate, and it is therefore a sufficient basis to move on to the next phase, which in our view should be the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems as a Protocol six to the CCW.’ ^[1]Statement by Panama, CCW GGE on LAWS, 2 March 2026, … Continue reading

In December 2025, Panama 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 CCW GGE on LAWS in September 2025, Panama 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, Panama 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.’

In December 2023, Panama 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.

Speaking at First Committee in 2023, Panama noted that ‘the development and use of new technologies in the military field constitutes a concern, in that they could, in certain circumstances, contribute or facilitate the commission of violations and abuses of human rights, as well as international humanitarian law.’^[2]Statement by Panama, UNGA First Committee, 09 October 2023. https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1l/k1lv5d2ciq

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.'^[3]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

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.’^[4]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 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.’^[5]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.’^[6]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