ICBL Media Room

Contacts

The ICBL can provide multi-lingual interviews and quotes with landmine survivors, treaty experts and specialists in landmine clearance, victim assistance, mine ban policy and global campaigning.

Please contact us to request an interview, or for any information about landmines and the Mine Ban Treaty:

Jared Bloch
Media and Communications Manager

ICBL-CMC
9, rue de Cornavin
1201 Geneva
Switzerland

Tel: +41-22-920-0320

Mobile: +41-78-683-4407

Email: jared@icblcmc.org

Latest News

EU-Wide Mine Ban a Reality, Five More Mine-Free Countries, Following Mine Ban Treaty Conference

(Geneva, 7 December) – Poland’s announcement of the country’s imminent ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty, made at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties (12MSP), highlighted the strength and momentum of the Mine Ban Treaty on its 15th anniversary.

Finish the job! Says Nobel Prize winning campaign on 15th anniversary of Ban Mine Treaty

(Geneva 3 December 2012): Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams, International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) campaigners, and landmine survivors from nearly 40 countries are calling on governments to commit to eradicating antipersonnel landmines in years, not decades. The call comes at the opening of the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties (12MSP) to the Mine Ban Treaty, taking place from 3-7 December in Geneva. More than 100 governments are expected to participate.

12th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty

On 3 December, exactly 15 years after the Mine Ban Treaty was opened for signature in Ottawa, Canada, governments, international agencies, and civil society will gather in Geneva for the treaty’s 12th Meeting of States Parties (12MSP). It is a chance for the international community to assess efforts to implement the treaty and the Cartagena Action Plan and to identify challenges and discuss plans how to fulfill these commitments by the treaty’s next review conference.

Landmine Monitor Report 2012 Released Globally, Geneva, 29 November 2012

The report reveals landmine use by governments at low point in 2012, mine clearance funding at record level; assistance to landmine survivors still a challenge.

Landmine Monitor 2012 covers landmine ban policy, use, production, trade, and stockpiling for every country in the world, and also includes information on landmine and explosive remnant of war contamination, casualties, clearance, and victim assistance. The report focuses on calendar year 2011, with information included up to October 2012 when possible.

Humanitarian Disarmament Campaigns Summit, New York, 20-21 October 2012

The Summit Communiqué issued by 31 non-governmental organizations, including ICBL and CMC, calls for strong disarmament initiatives driven by humanitarian imperatives to strengthen international law and protect civilians.

2012: The ICBL's 20th Birthday

This year is the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Nobel Peace Prizewinning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) - a momentous time for our many global members, partner agencies and the governments who have worked with us over the years to achieve our aim of a world free of landmines.

20 years in the life of a Nobel Peace Prizewinning campaign

Syrian opposition forces urged not to use landmines

(Geneva, 2 August 2012): The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is deeply concerned by recent claims that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) – the main armed opposition group currently fighting the Syrian government – intends to use landmines in armed conflict against the Assad regime.

On Wednesday 1 August 2012 an Al Jazeera report featured a statement from a combatant who said he was with the rebel group, and that the FSA would re-use antipersonnel mines that they have lifted from minefields laid by Syrian government troops near the Turkish border earlier this year.

Last major state user of landmines to join landmine ban treaty?

(Geneva, Friday 13 July 2012): In an unprecedented statement yesterday, Myanmar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the government is considering banning antipersonnel landmines. This message gives hope for thousands in the country still living in the deadly shadow of these weapons.

View a collection of incredible photographs of landmine survivors in Burma, taken by photographer Giovanni Diffidenti last October.

Key Facts

Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor is the research arm of the ICBL and its sister campaign, the Cluster Munition Coalition. The Landmine Monitor provides accurate and in-depth statistics and analysis on the global landmine situation, including the most recent casualty data, evidence of use, updates on clearance and global support for mine action. It is widely considered the most authoritative source for this information anywhere.

Landmine Monitor Fact Sheets

Landmine Monitor Country Profiles: detailed information on the landmine and cluster munition situation in every country of the world.

Landmine Monitor 2012: latest major findings

• The Monitor identified only one government using antipersonnel mines in 2012: Syria. In 2011, Israel, Libya (forces loyal to Gaddafi), and Myanmar used antipersonnel mines.
• Use by non-state armed groups was confirmed in six countries in 2011-2012: Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand and Yemen.
• Active production of antipersonnel mines may be ongoing in as few as four countries (all states not party to the Mine Ban Treaty): India, Myanmar, Pakistan and South Korea. Eight other states reserve the right to produce antipersonnel mines: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.
• A total of 4,286 new casualties were recorded in 2011, a number similar to 2010 and 2009. That is on average 12 people every day.
• Some 59 states, as well as six disputed areas are confirmed to be mine-affected. A further 12 states have either suspected or residual contamination.
• At least 190 square kilometers of mined areas were released through clearance or survey by 37 mine action programs in 2011. Over the last decade 1,700 square kilometers have been released through clearance or survey.
• More than 325,000 antipersonnel mines and almost 30,000 antivehicle mines were destroyed during clearance in 2011.
• The largest total clearance of mined areas was achieved by programs in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia and Sri Lanka, which together accounted for more than 80% of recorded clearance.
• Donors and affected states contributed approximately $662 million in international and national support for mine action in 2011.
• At least 153 of the 160 States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty have completed the destruction of their stockpiles of antipersonnel mines.

Facts about the ICBL and the Mine Ban Treaty

• October 2012 marks 20 years since the creation of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, founded by Human Rights Watch, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Mines Advisory Group, Handicap International, Physicians for Human Rights and medico international in New York in 1992.
• At the time, around 20,000 people every year were falling victim to landmines.
• The ICBL’s unique global civil society movement created a legal and diplomatic precedent that placed humanitarian values above military needs: we made sure this ban was focused on protecting people, rather than military needs.
• The Mine Ban Treaty was the first international treaty to ban a weapon of war that had been in widespread use.
• The Ottawa Process, the negotiations that led to the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, was so successful in quickly achieving its aims that it has been used as a model for other lifesaving movements – such as the Oslo Process to ban cluster bombs and the Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
• The role ICBL played in the Ottawa Process was recognized by the Nobel Committee in December 1997 which granted ICBL and its Coordinator, Jody Williams, the Nobel Peace Prize for changing ‘a ban on antipersonnel mines from a vision to a feasible reality’ (quote from the Nobel Committee).
• Since the Treaty became law 15 years ago, there has been a dramatic decrease in worldwide use, production, and transfer of antipersonnel mines, and the number of casualties reported has massively reduced.
• More than 46 million mines in stockpiles or removed from the ground have been destroyed; large tracts of land have been cleared and several states have been declared mine-free again.
• Crucially, any use of antipersonnel landmines is also today widely recognised as being unacceptable, and is resoundingly condemned.
• The only legally binding instrument that puts a stop to mines being used, produced, stockpiled and transferred, is the Mine Ban Treaty.

Press release archive