Uruguay

Uruguay is a state party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Uruguay supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems.

In December 2025, Uruguay 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, Uruguay 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, Urugay 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.’

Speaking at the UN General Assembly First Committee in October 2024, Uruguay stressed that ‘Autonomous weapons challenge us from a humanitarian, legal, security and ethical perspective. Without meaningful control, these systems will pose a risk of escalating conflicts and undermining the responsibility and accountability necessary in the use of force. As new technologies continue to be developed and used in conflict, the need to regulate these new means of warfare, taking into account the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law, becomes inevitable.'^[1]Statement by Uruguay, 79th UNGA First Committee, 08 October 2024

In December 2023, Uruguay 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 December 2021, Uruguay delivered a statement on behalf of a group of thirteen states, which stated that ‘our understanding is that the mandate that was approved by this Conference implies the development of measures for a legally- binding instrument. The reference to the objectives and purpose of the Convention, and the examples of the existing Protocols within the CCW, demands the fulfilment of the Convention’s raison d’être of developing and codifying new international law, including the formulation of prohibitions and regulations that will address autonomous weapons systems.’ The statement further warned that ‘Time is of the essence. If nothing is done, and we continue to delay progress in dealing with these concerns, technological developments in this area will outpace our deliberations, and the window for action would be closed.’^[2]Statement by Uruguay on behalf of Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Palestine, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Sierra Leone, Uruguay and Argentina, Sixth Review … Continue reading