Peru

Peru has participated in most Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meetings on autonomous weapons systems. Peru supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Peru 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, Peru 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, Peru 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.’

Peru made a submission to the UN Secretary-General pursuant to Resolution 78/241 on autonomous weapons systems in May 2024.

In 2024, Peru 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.’

In December 2023, Peru 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.

At the 2023 CCW GGE on LAWS, Peru urged ‘all countries to leave behind their differences and reach specific results as soon as possible to adopt a legally binding instrument based on international law, including the UN Charter, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, for the prohibition and regulation of these weapons systems.'^[1]Statement by Peru, CCW GGE on LAWS, 6 March 2023, https://conf.unog.ch/digitalrecordings/index.html?guid=public/61.0500/FB7945F1-0C2B-4DC1-88CA-3EBA72D3530D_15h14&position=807&channel=ENGLISH

At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in October 2022, Peru stated that ‘Progress in military technology towards increasing autonomy has led us to a scenario where machines have the power and discretion to put an end to human life. This is morally unacceptable, but still uncertain in legal terms. LAWS are of great concern to humanity; they call for a legal and political response, which is urgent, from the international community. For Peru there is no other way than establishing legally binding prohibitions. Regulation through a new treaty is the most effective way of dealing with the increasing uncertainty about what is or is not acceptable for the increasingly complex systems of autonomous weapons.'^[2]Statement by Peru, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 21 October 2022, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k19/k19sr7owch; please note that this link leads to the full recording of the relevant … Continue reading

At the Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), Peru said that it would ‘advocate for negotiations and dialogue in this group to promote a legally binding instrument that would prevent the use of LAWS without meaningful human control.’^[3]Statement by Peru, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 17 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-17-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that … Continue reading Peru is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument.

In a joint statement with nine other countries delivered at the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS), Peru stated that it ‘opposes the development and use of weapons systems that are fully autonomous since they do away with human beings in the crucial decision making processes with respect to the use of force aimed at killing other human beings, doing away with human dignity in the process.’^[4]Statement delivered by Uruguay on behalf of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Peru and Uruguay, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, … Continue reading In a joint statement with twelve other countries, Peru said that there are ‘fundamental humanitarian, legal, ethical and military concerns over the far reaching implications of the development of autonomous weapon systems, we must address these concerns without delay. International humanitarian law applies to all weapon systems, but in itself is not sufficient to address the pace of technological change, particularly artificial intelligence.’^[5]Statement by Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nigeria, the Philippines, Panama, Peru, Sierra Leone, State of Palestine, Uruguay and Kazakhstan, Sixth Review Conference of the … Continue reading