South Africa

South Africa has participated in all Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014.

South Africa supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. At the 2023 CCW GGE on LAWS, South Africa reiterated the need for the adoption of a ‘legally binding instrument’ on autonomous weapons systems, ‘due to their indiscriminate effects and to address the humanitarian and international security challenges’ posed by such systems.^[1]Statement by South Africa, CCW GGE on LAWS, 6 March 2023, … Continue reading

In a statement during the Sixth Review Conference of the CCW in December 2021, South Africa stated that ‘it is high time for further work on LAWS, building on the body of work before us, to move into the phase of concrete negotiations. Should the GGE’s (CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems) further work result in the adoption of an instrument on LAWS that is of a political nature only and as a final product, with no prospect of elevating further work to the level of a legally binding instrument, South Africa would regard the process as having been a failure’.^[2]Statement by South Africa, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, December 2021, … Continue reading The statement further emphasised that ‘we should always bear in mind that the possibility to weaponise such technology raises fundamental ethical, legal, operational and political questions’.^[3]Statement by South Africa, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, December 2021, … Continue reading

South Africa is a member of the African Group within the United Nations, and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), both of which support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. South Africa, on behalf of the African group, stated at the 2021 GGE on LAWS that ‘Fully autonomous weapons systems or LAWS that are not under human control should be banned, even so, before they come into existence’.^[4]Statement delivered by South Africa on behalf of the African Group at the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) 9-13 April 2018, … Continue reading