States Parties 161 States Not Party 36
Intersessional Standing Committee Meetings
Update 1, Monday 2 June 2008
General Status and Operation of the Convention
Universalization: No progress but three States not Parties speak up
The highlight of the session were interventions made by three States not Parties: Marshall Islands, Lao PDR and Vietnam (speaking for the first time at a Mine Ban Treaty meeting). None of them was very encouraging with Marshall Islands stating it was not able to reconcile the obligations under the Convention with its relationship with the US; and Lao PDR and Vietnam expressing concerns about not being able to fulfill their treaty obligations, in particular meeting the deadline for mine clearance.
The ICBL expressed its disappointment with lack of progress on universalization for the past 6 months, despite some positive signs shown by Bahrain, Oman, Laos and Nepal in 2007. At the same time the ICBL was pleased to see 15 States not Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty participating in the Dublin Conference on Cluster Munitions last month, and urged them to also join the Mine Ban Treaty. While calling on the last two EU members remaining outside of the Treaty - Poland and Finland - to respectively ratify and join the treaty without delay, the ICBL also restated its commitment to continuing universalization efforts in the regions with low adherence to the treaty including Asia, the Middle East, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Transparency and the Exchange of Information (Art. 7): Very low rate of submissions of Art. 7 reports
The only State Party that intervened was Belgium, the Coordinator of the Art. 7 Contact Group, underlining the exceptionally low rate (around 50%) of submissions of Art. 7 reports this year and reminding delegates of the four late initial reports. The ICBL also made an intervention making these points and highlighting as well the varying quality of the reports received. Iraq later noted that the initial report it submitted early was only a draft and would be resubmitted before its deadline.
Mines retained for development and training purposes (Art. 3): Reporting on past and planned use lagging behind
Only 15 States Parties used the new Form D as of June 2007 to report on past and planned use of their retained mines and only a few intervened on this topic on Monday.
Stockpile Destruction (Art. 4): Three States Parties failed to meet their deadline
The focus of the session was on the three States Parties that missed their deadline for stockpile destruction this year: Greece, Turkey and Belarus. None of the three states have indicated when and how they plan to complete their destruction.
The ICBL made a very strong statement calling on the three concerned states to indicate details of their destruction plans and on other States Parties to ensure such cases would not be repeated in the future.
Following the three cases of failure to comply with Art. 4 obligations the co-chairs presented a paper Ensuring the full implementation of Article 4; which includes recommendations to prevent future instances of non-compliance with Art. 4 and provides means to address non-compliance cases. This document will be then presented to the 9MSP for approval.
ICBL Side Events
Launch of book: Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy and Human Security; edited by Jody Williams, Steve Goose, and Mary Wareham. The launch featured a panel with Steve Goose and four other contributors to the book.
