Advocacy sheet, CCW GGE Meeting, 31 August-4 September 2026

The final 2026 meeting of the Group of Government Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems comes at a critical moment. Reports of the use and testing on the battlefield of systems that fall within the scope of autonomous weapons systems are rising – including of systems that could detect and kill people autonomously. There are also reports of civilian casualties.

At this GGE, states must complete their mandate to agree by consensus a set of elements for an instrument on autonomous weapons systems. The crucial decision point on what to do next with this work comes at the CCW Review Conference in November.

Our main recommendations to states at the GGE are to:

• Protect and strengthen the current draft set of elements of an instrument. Final issues should be addressed during the next stage of work: negotiating a legal instrument
• Reject any attempts to reduce the central importance of meaningful human control in the elements text
• Support the inclusion of the full set of elements in the GGE’s Report to the Review Conference. Adopting a significantly weakened version of the elements would risk undermining negotiations before they have even begun: we would urge states not to join consensus on a weaker elements text
• Recognise the set of elements is a good enough basis to move forward to negotiations

This Advocacy Sheet contains key calls to states from Stop Killer Robots, for states participating at the session of the GGE from 31 August – 4 September 2026.