Egypt has not yet endorsed the Political Declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (explosive weapons in populated areas). It did, however, participate in the negotiations towards a Political Declaration. In the first informal consultations on the declaration in November 2019, Egypt stressed that the Political Declaration should not aim to create new norms or “stigmatise” certain types of weapons. Egypt also stressed the need for the declaration to include non-state actors.1 Egypt reaffirmed these positions during the second round of consultations in 2020, noting that new regulations are not needed to prevent the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, but that it is instead necessary to fully implement existing international humanitarian law (IHL). Egypt also called on the Political Declaration to differentiate between lawful and unlawful uses of explosive weapons in populated areas.2
Statements and positions
Egypt has on a number of occasions spoken on EWIPA in multilateral forums. At the UN Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in May 2019, Egypt condemned the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, noting that “conflicts are increasingly taking place in densely populated areas where explosive weapons with indiscriminate effects on civilians are used. All that requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account the specific characteristics of each conflict and prioritizes above all the protection of civilians, particularly women, children and the most vulnerable.”3 During the UN General Assembly First Committee in 2023, Egypt referenced explosive weapon use by Israeli armed forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.4
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, of which Egypt is a member state, aligned itself with the World Humanitarian Summit Core Commitments to “Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity” in May 2016, including the commitment “to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities, for instance by working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and by sparing civilian infrastructure from military use in the conduct of military operations.”5