… we believe that states should commit themselves to adopt and implement national measures with a view of accompanying the development and employment of weapon systems that have autonomy, in order to guarantee full compliance with IHL. Such measures should cover the entire life-cycle of these weapon systems. More specifically, this means that carrying out legal reviews of weapons, as said by delegations that spoke before me, those that are provided for by [AP I], Article 36, aimed at ensuring compliance with applicable international law, including IHL, of new weapons systems during the stage of study, development, acquisition. And this also means the establishment of rigorous procedures of verification, evaluation, certification, and validation with a view of ensuring the necessary level of reliability of such weapons systems.
France, at the national level, is carrying out legal reviews and they’re carried out by legal experts of the Ministry of the Army, supported by technical experts from the same Ministry of Defence, civilian and military experts, in order to ensure the optimal levels of understanding of the technical characteristics of weapon systems, and the expected effects during employment.
Statement by France under agenda item 5, topic 5 (9 March 2023, transcript)
