Egypt

2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools with representative from capital.

September 2017 UNSC: GCPEA sent a letter to the ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue on attacks and military use and to endorse the Declaration and mentioned the AU call to endorse during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict.

November 2017: Sent an email to the mission in Geneva requesting for a meeting.

March 2018: During the informal on Resolution A/HRC/37/L.33, Egypt has opposed references to the Declaration in operative and preambular paragraphs.

July 2018: Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018).

May 2019: Participated in the Third International Conference in Palma.

June 2019: GCPEA wrote to the representative, who had attended the Third International Conference, to share the list of endorsing states, and the endorsement procedure.

October 2019: Nevena met with the Mission in Geneva. Positive meeting but they look at the issue from IHL perspective.

March 2020: During the consultions on the GA Res on International Day to Protect Education for Attack: The Safe School Declaration (SSD) PP7 Egypt, Iran, Algeria, Russia and Indonesia opposed including reference to the SSD. The argument was that the SSD is not a UN negotiated process, and should hence go.

July 2021: GCPEA (Yatasha) met with the Mission of Egypt in Geneva. The meeting was positive in that the official promised to revive the process which has been dormant since 2019 due to changes in the ministry. The official requested an information note on the Declaration and the Abuja Conference. Concerns flagged include the placement of the Declaration vis-à-vis the UN processes and the ICRC conferences.  GCPEA explained the SSD accomplishments, particularly by African countries, and that the SSD complements existing international law. The law of armed conflict requires the parties to a conflict to take precautions against the effects of attack. Further, it was explained that the Declaration is a tool to implement existing international law obligations. In terms of the UN processes. It was further explained that for the first time the GA proclaimed the International Day, the UNSC adopted the PRST and the Human Rights Council recently adopted the Right to Education resolution – which acknowledges the efforts of states on SSD implementation.  The UN system has therefore committed to ensuring safe education and the Declaration has been acknowledged as a tool. The Abuja Conference was explained and that it would be a great opportunity for Egypt to endorse ahead of the Conference.

February 2022: Norway Geneva (Christian) shared with us following info – I spoke to an Egyptian colleague a short while ago, who had the impression that it is not so much the relation to IHL that is the main barrier to joining these days – rather a certain skepticism to the concept of a political declaration. She assumed that continued research & focus on the practical impact of the SSD would be very useful to convince the Egyptians.

September 2022 Transforming Education Summit: Egypt: committed to “increasing the resilience of the Education System in light of disruptions caused by COVID-19 through ensuring that educational institutions are open, healthy, and safe”

September 2022: On 05 September, Nevena and Apolline met with Ms. Noran Omar Atteya, First Secretary of the PM in Geneva. She is new to the position so we provided a full background on the Coalition, the SSD, zooming in on the region – AU level of endorsement and good practice examples (doctrine on peace support operations). We discussed Egypt’s previous concerns around the Declaration going beyond IHL and the critic that it was not a UN process, and addressed both. The representative was supportive and promised to share a comprehensive note with positive recommendation to her capital. We will follow up.