CISP director Alimzhan Akhmetov took part in GGE meeting regarding LAWS

August 19-21, 2019 in Geneva, the director of the Center for International Security and Policy Alimzhan Akhmetov attended a meeting of the Group of Government Experts on the issue of Autonomous Lethal Weapons Systems.

This second and the final meeting of 2019 ended with the adoption of the report of the Group, which will be approved at the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on Humanitarian Weapons in November 2019 in Geneva.

The group was unable to agree to start negotiations on the development of a legally binding international instrument on the preventive prohibition of this type of weapon. Moreover, the outcome document proposes to extend the work of the Group for 2020 and 2021.

This means that countries leading the development of such weapons systems have received additional time for their implementation.

Currently, 29 countries are in favor of a preventive ban on these weapons, while the United States and Russia, with the support of other technologically advanced countries, are opposed to the start of negotiations.

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The Center for International Security and Policy has been a member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots since July 2018 and has been actively involved in the work of the Group of Governmental Experts on the issue of Autonomous Lethal Weapons Systems in order to advance the issue of a preventive legally binding ban on these weapons.