States Parties 161 States Not Party 36
The 1997 Nobel Peace Laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) today urged governments that have joined the Mine Ban Treaty to step up their efforts to turn the words of the treaty into reality for millions of people in mine-affected countries worldwide.
Representatives of the States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty – officially titled the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Production, Stockpiling and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction - will gather in Geneva from 18 to 22 September for their 7th annual meeting. They will be joined by landmine survivors, civil society campaigners, field operators and international agencies for a week of discussions on implementation of the treaty’s provisions.
“The words of the treaty promise us a world finally free from the suffering caused by landmines,” said Margaret Arach Orech, ICBL ambassador and landmine survivor from Uganda, addressing the opening session of the meeting. “However, nine years after it was signed, far too often the reality on the ground tells us a different story,” she added.
As detailed in the 2006 edition of the ICBL’s Landmine Monitor Report, implementation of some of the key provisions of the treaty appears to be at risk. Of particular concern is the fact that at least 13 countries appear not to be on course to meet their treaty-mandated mine clearance deadlines coming up in 2009/2010.
“We expect states to make every effort to ensure that mine clearance deadlines are met. If all mines are not taken out of the ground in the shortest possible time, the world envisaged by the Mine Ban Treaty will remain a promise on paper for all those whose lives are blighted by the presence of landmines,” said Stuart Maslen, from Norwegian People’s Aid and the Landmine Monitor mine action team.
The treaty allows for extensions of the mine clearance deadlines, but does not provide a detailed process for these to be requested or granted. The ICBL hopes that states will agree this week on a process to ensure that requests are made only as a last resort and that extensions are granted for the shortest period possible to states showing good faith in their efforts to meet the deadline.
Adequate and sustained funding - both from affected countries themselves and the international community - is key to ensuring that treaty obligations are met. For the first time, mine action funding decreased in 2005 – a development that must be reversed if progress in mine clearance is to be sustained.
“We hope that during this meeting we will hear renewed pledges from both donor and affected countries to step up the collective effort to finally rid the world of the scourge of landmines,” said Sylvie Brigot, ICBL’s Executive Director.
Most notably, funding for programs, and policies to support and protect the rights of landmine survivors – estimated at up to 500,000 worldwide – is insufficient in the vast majority of affected countries despite the treaty’s requirement to “provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration, of mine victims.”
“States Parties to the treaty have recognised that assisting survivors is more than simply providing medical care – it is a question of ensuring their basic rights are met,” said Stan Brabant from Handicap International. “We expect governments to now make good on their promises, improving survivor assistance programs and plans, and providing the necessary resources to back them up.”
The ICBL also urged all states remaining outside the Mine Ban Treaty (43 including three countries that have signed the treaty but not yet ratified) to join without delay.
“A world without landmines and the suffering they cause might seem an ambitious goal,” said Sylvie Brigot. “But it is one we can achieve with sustained effort. Landmine survivors and people living in mine-affected lands deserve no less,” she concluded.
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For more information on the event or to book interviews, please contact Nancy Ingram at media@icbl.org or +41 (0)76 222 6968.
