United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and has participated in all CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems. The United Kingdom does not support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, the United Kingdom 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 79th UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, the United Kingdom 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.’

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

In December 2023, United Kingdom 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 Sixth Review Conference of the CCW in 2021, it said that it ‘remains of the view that our discussion has not matured to the point where the commencement of negotiations on a legally binding instrument is feasible or indeed required and we remain firm in our belief that the flexible and principle-based approach of international humanitarian law means that it is ideally suited to cover developments in autonomy.’^[1]Statement by United Kingdom, Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 14 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/RCHCP6-14-12-2021-PM_mp3_en.html; please … Continue reading

At the 2021 CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (GGE on LAWS), the United Kingdom said that it ‘strongly believes that artificial intelligence (AI) within weapon systems can and must be used lawfully and ethically.’^[2]Statement by the United Kingdom, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading In the same statement, the United Kingdom said that it ‘opposes the creation and use of systems that would operate without meaningful and context appropriate human involvement throughout their life cycle, the use of such weapons could not satisfy fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.’^[3]Statement by the United Kingdom, GGE on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to the full recording & … Continue reading On the implications of autonomous weapon systems, it says that ‘AI and autonomy have the potential to support the better application of the International Humanitarian Law; they can improve the evidence, analysis and timelines of decision making.’^[4]Statement by the United Kingdom, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 02 December 2021, http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-02-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; please note that this link leads to … Continue reading