2017 Group of Governmental Expertson Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)
Intervention by ESTONIA
Item 5: General exchange of views :The way ahead
Genf, 16november 2017
Thank you, Mr Chairman!
Estonia has carefully considered theviews expressed during this meeting by the distinguished representative ofstates and civil society organisations. We thank all of the participants fortheir thoughtful interventions. We extend our special thanks to the states thatprepared working papers and to the chair for his leadership and guidance.
Estonia firmly believes that anyweapon system, irrespective of its level of autonomy, must only be used instrict compliance with international law, in particular internationalhumanitarian law. States must ensure that the weapon systems that they developor acquire are capable of being used consistently with their obligations underinternational law, and are indeed so used in practice.
In terms of the way forward, Estoniamakes the following observations:
A number of states have indicatedthe significance of maintaining meaningful human control over weapon systems orexercising appropriate levels of human judgment. It is not entirely clear,however, what these phrases means to individual states. Thus, Estonia wouldsupport a further discussion where states and civil society organisations wouldmore fully express their views as to what is required in order for a weaponsystem to be considered as being under meaningful human control.
A number of states have highlightedthe importance of conducting legal reviews of new weapons as an implementationmechanism of IHL. Estonia would support a further discussion on best practicesof weapon reviews, especially as concerns technologically complex weaponsystems.
Estonia believes that a GGE of theCCW is the best forum for conducting these discussions.
Thank you, Mr Chairman!