Delegation from Represented by

Arab Republic of Egypt German School of Sofia,

Nora Duneva

Position Paper for the General Assembly

The topics before the General Assembly are: Protecting Cultural Property in Times of Armed Conflict;
Decreasing the Dependence on Oil, Coal and Other Fossil Fuels

I. Protecting Cultural Property in Times of Armed Conflict

The protection of cultural heritage should be the concern of all people, everywhere. Cultural heritage is
important to every country if for no other reason than because it strengthens national and cultural identity.
Recent events in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia have provoked considerable
dialogue concerning the protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict, civil unrest and
national disasters.
Тhe Egyptian revolution of 25th January 2011 resulted in the end of Hosni Mubarak’s tenure as
president, and also witnessed the disappearance of police from their posts, and a state of lawlessness that
left many archaeological sites open to looting, vandalism and illegal building activities. Despite the
recurrence of these trends, not only in Egypt, but throughout North Africa and South-western Asia as
many countries try to change from authoritarian regimes to greater social, political and economic
freedom, it would appear that the past measures are ineffective in these situations.
The increase in looting and the destruction of sites is influencing how archaeologists of all types work.
Increasingly, each season is regarded as potentially being a final one, with backlog being processed and
long-term artifact studies in particular being pushed toward completion, at least of data acquisition. Since
2012 in particular there have been consolidated attempts to protect sites, with security forces being more
present and vigilant, though with limited success as resources are restricted. Even now, looting continues.
In August 2013 the Mallawi Museum was attacked—it is still unclear if this was motivated by politics or
greed—with guards and museum personnel dying in the process. Many objects were removed or, if too
large to remove easily, were smashed. The Ministry of Antiquities offered an option of no reprisal if
objects were returned, and fortunately, many have been returned and others are continuing to reappear,
although more are still missing or irretrievably damaged.
Social media is perhaps the peoples’ greatest asset in the battle to save Egypt's cultural heritage.
Spreading news of nefarious acts results in a network of opinion makers, community leaders, and
protesters to concerned citizens, thus forcing change in site and heritage protection policy. It has also led
to the most vital of dialogues: that between archaeologists and the general public. In recent years the
ECHO website and Facebook page have been joined by many new sites, blogs and Twitter accounts,
some created by young Egyptian archaeologists, others by established Egyptologists and yet others by
concerned citizens frustrated with the destruction of Egypt's heritage.
International agencies have voiced their concern, UNESCO in particular. They have entered into
discussions with the Ministry of Antiquities in establishing strategies to protect the sites for short-term,
and for the long-term creating education mechanisms to involve local inhabitants to view themselves as
stakeholders, and thus protectors of the sites themselves.
Egypt has requested a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US, urging congress to
adopt new rules that would empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to seize looted
Egyptian antiquities; currently Egypt is excluded from the list of countries from which customs may seize
undocumented artefacts.
In the last decade, the rate of theft and devastation of cultural heritage has fallen sharply. Still there
must be a clear and consistent stand against looting by all heritage organisations and museums, and
greater cooperation between Egyptian security personnel, the tourism sector, local communities, ICOM,
ICOMOS, ANCBS and UNESCO in order to protect cultural heritage, and address the problem of
looting. The installation of a stable government may support the regeneration of the tourist trade and help
alleviate the economic burdens on Egyptian society, and in the process help to protect Egypt’s world
heritage.

II. Decreasing the Dependence on Oil, Coal and Other Fossil Fuels
Egypt is a country with a high potential of natural resources: precious stones, natural gas, oil, coal and
large reserves of fossil fuel energy sources. While more than 90% of the Egyptian generated electricity
comes only from oil and natural gas, the major problem that Egypt encounters, especially in the energy
sector is the dynamic growth of the population, which eventually fastens the rate of depleting the
country's resources.
Egypt plays a vital role in international energy markets through the operations of the two Suez Canal
transit points and the Suez-Mediterranean (SUMED) pipeline. Expanded in 2015, the Suez Canal is an
important transit route for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments travelling southbound from
North Africa and along the Mediterranean Sea to Asia. Fees collected from the operation of these two
transit points are significant sources of revenue for the Egyptian government.
The high level of dependency on natural resources has drawn attention to the issue of sustainability. In
addition, subsidizing oil products and natural gas within the domestic market highlighted the public
finances challenge to continue introducing these products at low prices, regardless of their production
cost. Moreover, it is claimed that the subsidized end-user prices for energy are a significant factor
contributing to the inefficient use of non-renewable sources. To maintain efficiency, restructuring the
energy sector generally and liberalizing the oil sector specifically is necessary to meet the requirements of
competitive markets. This has induced the Egyptian government motivation to target increasing the
electric power generated from renewable resources over the next 15 years, in addition to electric energy
generated through nuclear power.
The government was primarily successful in terms of slowing-down the depletion rate of oil and, hence,
achieving a steady state of proven oil reserves. and, hence, achieving a steady state of proven oil reserves,
keeping it at 3.7 billion barrels. Given the planned oil production level, however, the share of the EGPC,
the Egyptian partner in corporations responsible for downstream oil activities, was not sufficient to meet
the increasing level of domestic oil consumption since the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, the
EGPC has to buy the necessary portion from its foreign partner’s share and build more refinery capacity
to meet domestic demand.
The power sector has focused on the diversification of the use of fuel resources, promoting the use of
renewable energy. Egypt is endowed with abundance of wind energy resources, especially in Suez Gulf
area, as well as its potential to generate electricity by utilizing solar energy. Therefore, in 2007 the
Supreme Energy Council in Egypt adopted a resolution on an ambitious plan aiming at increasing the
contribution of renewable energy to reach 20% of total energy generated by 2020.
Egypt is willing to work with the United Nations countries to find a proper solution.