PRESS RELEASE
Geneva, November 13, 2017- The Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons started its work in Geneva today. It is the first time that this group has met since its inception by the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons at the end of 2016.
Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, the Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva, made a statement in the general debate and called for the early negotiation of a Protocol that prohibits autonomous lethal weapons, also called "Killer Robots", before they begin to be produced on a mass scale and deployed. He also urged the regulation of military attack drones, which are causing a high number of civilian victims.
Pedroso Cuesta said that machines or robots cannot replace human beings in the qualitative judgments that are of key importance in armed conflicts. He reaffirmed that human control must be maintained in the most important decisions of the war, including those related to the selection and attacks of the targets.
The Cuban diplomat also warned that these weapons are incompatible with the International Humanitarian Law, since their use could not guarantee compliance, among others, with the principles of Distinction and Proportionality as provided by International Humanitarian Law. Nor could an effective evaluation of the State's responsibility for internationally wrongful acts be made, or of the accountability of the machines for violations of the International Law, he said in his speech.
In the debate, the voice of Venezuela that made a statement on behalf of the Member States of the Non-Aligned Movement was also heard, which shows the high interest this issue has worldwide.
The Group of Governmental Experts is an open-ended mechanism to all High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Currently, 179 States are parties to this legal instrument. Next Friday, November 17, the final report of the Group will be adopted and the way forward 2018 will be determined.
Permanent Mission of Cuba in Geneva