Egypt

Egypt is not currently a State party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), but it has participated in a number of CCW meetings on autonomous weapons systems since 2014.

Egypt supports the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. In a statement during the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) on 9 April 2018, Egypt stated that it is ‘of the view that a legally binding instrument against the development and manufacture of such weapon systems is urgent…as well as the regulation of existing systems that fall within this mandate’.^[1]Statement by Egypt, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, 9 April 2018, … Continue reading At the 77th UN General Assembly First Committee meeting in October 2022, Egypt said that ‘there are several domains which have a direct impact on international security that are left without any internationally agreed rules to prevent them from turning into a series of arms races and armed conflicts,’ including in the area of autonomous weapons systems.^[2]Statement by Egypt, 77th UN General Assembly First Committee, 24 October 2022, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1s/k1s8hkl4pp; please note that this link leads to the full recording & transcript of … Continue reading

Egypt is a member of the African Group and a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), both of which support the negotiation of a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. During the third session of the 2021 meeting of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, the African Group said that autonomous weapon systems raise a number of ‘ethical, legal, moral and technical questions’, and that it looks forward to ‘concrete policy recommendations including elements of a legally binding instrument, stipulating prohibitions and regulations’ on autonomous weapon systems.^[3]Statement by the African Group, CCW Group of Governmental Experts meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems, 3 December 2021: http://149.202.215.129:8080/s2t/UNOG/LAWS3-03-12-2021-AM_mp3_en.html; … Continue reading