On Wednesday 17 April 2024, Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio formally opened the first African regional conference on autonomous weapons systems, themed, “Peace and Security Aspects of Autonomous Weapons Systems: An ECOWAS Perspective on a Path towards the Negotiation Process of a Legally Binding Instrument”.
President Bio, while welcoming guests from member states with delights on behalf of the government and the great people of Sierra Leone, described the three-day conference as important, aimed at primarily setting the agenda and propelling the global discourse on establishing a legally binding instrument to address the use of autonomous weapons.
“Sierra Leone is particularly delighted to host esteemed representatives from the ECOWAS region and beyond to discuss and develop a common approach towards this complex but extremely relevant and important challenge. This initiative comes in response to the UN Secretary-General’s policy brief from July 2023, urging negotiations on this matter to be concluded by 2026.
“Sierra Leone, having played a pivotal role in drafting UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241 on Autonomous Weapons, which was adopted in December 2023, is committed to urgently addressing challenges and concerns related to artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy in weapons systems,” he said.
He added that the conference aligned with the country’s current role as an elected member in the Non-Permanent Category of the UN Security Council, providing a platform for Sierra Leone to advocate for a rules-based world order to enhance global security.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Gambians Abroad, His Excellency Dr Mamadou Tangara, said the region’s examination of the various phenomena through ECOWAS possessed a unique opportunity to make decisions on the permeating impacts of technological innovations on sustainable peace, security, and human capital development.
“The idea of machines without constraints making life-and-death decisions should be thoroughly examined, and determined efforts should be made for clear legal parameters and operational protocols to be implemented to respect the rule of law and the human rights of innocent parties.
“The unregulated abundance of autonomous weapons adds to the multilayer challenges being faced by our sub-region, particularly in implementing the Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunitions, and Other Related Materials,” he said.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, Ambassador Dr Abdel-Fatau Musah, described the ongoing mass destruction and use of weapons, as well as the use of what he described as weapons of the future, as concerns for the regional block, the continent, and the world in particular.
He praised Sierra Leone’s President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, for successfully securing a seat at the UN Security Council in the non-permanent member category, a celebration he said was for the country, ECOWAS, as well as for Africa. He urged member states to effectively utilise the conference to deliberate on the implications of the peace and security of the continent, especially with the intervention of AI and AI-used weapons.
