Brussels, 24 February 2025
EgyptWide for Human Rights and CNAPD announce their report on the offshore production of Belgian arms in Egypt
Despite an arms embargo, Belgian-designed weapons are still contributing to human rights violations, internal repression, and proliferation in Egypt: it’s because of offshore licensed production, a phenomenon mostly overlooked in policy yet on the rise because it allows the arms industry to circumvent state restrictions on arms transfers.
EgyptWide for Human Rights and the Coordination Nationale d’Action pour la Paix et la Démocratie (CNAPD) announce the launch of the report “License to Abuse: Belgian Arms Production in Egypt Fueling Proliferation and Violations”, coming on Monday, 24 February 2025. The report sheds light on the negative human rights impacts of the licensed production of Belgian arms in Egypt, building on evidence that Belgian-designed arms models (including the FN FAL rifle and the FN MAG machine gun) consistently featured in incidents of internal repression and human rights violations in Egypt between 2013 and 2023.
Concerned with identifying the source of the weapons used in such abuses, the research evidences the role of licensed arms production in enabling arms manufacturers to circumvent state restrictions on arms transfers by delocalizing production chains or trading intellectual property rights. Following the issuance of Walloon Decree of July 21, 2012, and the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty, Walloon arms manufacturers including FN Herstal and the Herstal Group, New Lauchaussée, and the Nexter Group (KNDS) have recurred to the export of production lines and intellectual property rights licenses to maintain business ties with Egypt despite the arms embargo announced in 2013. Thanks to such business partnerships, Egypt is increasingly able not only to meet its internal demand for weapons, but also to export its own military production to countries including Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea.
Despite representing a structural component of global arms production and supply chains, licensed arms production is not adequately regulated in policy, including the Walloon Decree of 2012 and the EU Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, which contain no provisions concerning the export of production lines and intellectual property rights.
Therefore, to more effectively contrast global arms proliferation and misuse, policy reforms and integrations are necessary to regulate the phenomenon of offshore arms production under license.
The report “License to Abuse: Belgian Arms Production in Egypt Fueling Proliferation and Violations” is available in French, Arabic, and English. EgyptWide for Human Rights and CNAPD remain available to provide additional information or comments.
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