2025 Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
Second Session (Geneva, 1–5 September 2025)
Asia-Pacific Institute for Law and Security
Thank you, Chair!
Many thanks to you, and your entire team, for the work that went into reviewing and balancing all the proposals, and coming up with this revised text.
We consider the inclusion of a chapeau that applies to all paragraphs of the box a positive development, which streamlines the text. We also have no concerns about the replacement of the word “user” with the word “operator”.
But we would make a few additional observations regarding the issue of a “combination of one or more weapons and technological components”. We were one of the delegations suggesting that the phrase “integrated combination” used previously was problematic because it might require the integration of all functions into a single device. Our suggestion was to insert the word “functionally” before the word “integrated”, such that the text would refer to a “functionally integrated combination” of weapons and other components.
Completely replacing the word “integrated” with “functional” might, however, create new problems in interpretation. The new phrase “functional combination” of weapons and other components could simply mean that the combination functions—that it works.
We would reiterate our suggestion to use the phrase “functionally integrated combination”. This would make it clear that the weapons and other components function together as a system. In other words, “functionally integrated” would mean that the weapons and other components are integrated in terms of their functionality, but not necessarily physically.
Finally, we very much appreciate the revised and simplified language that you have proposed in paragraph 2. We are also grateful for your persuasive explanation for the removal of the first sentence of this paragraph.
Thank you, Chair!
