Recently, the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) concluded their deliberations and adopted a consensus report. With the success of adopting a substantive and consensus report, the UNGGE on LAWS has made a huge comeback as the previous 2020 UNGGE failed to present a consensus report for consideration to the 2021 Sixth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).[1]
In December 2021, the Sixth Review Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW decided that the UNGGE on LAWS, created through decision 1 of the Fifth Review Conference of CCW (CCW/CONF.V/10) would continue to work while adhering to the agreed recommendations (CCW/CONF.V/2).[2] Besides two formal sessions in March and July 2022, the UNGGE also held three sets of informal meetings in April, June and July 2022. In addition to the high contracting parties, signatory and observer states, the representatives of the European Union (EU), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) also participated in the deliberations of the UNGGE.[3] The UNGGE reached a consensus and successfully adopted its final report in the second and last session. This report would be submitted to the meeting of the High Contracting Parties.
