Intersessional Daily Update 1 - Treaty

Author/Origin: Mary Wareham wareham@hrw.org

(Monday 09 February 2004 Geneva, Switzerland) Standing Committee of the General Status and Implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty
Monday, 9 February 2004
Co-Chairs - Mexico and The Netherlands
Co-Rapporteurs - New Zealand and South Africa

ICBL presentations

Universalization, Issues of Concern (Articles 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9).

Key discussions

• Universalization of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty
• Transparency Measures (Article 9)
• ICBL Issues of Concern (Articles 1, 2, 3)

Highlights for ICBL

• Non-signatories Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka made statements indicating their intent to accede to the Treaty. Lithuania announced it will hold a regional meeting for northeast Europe on universalization from 8-9 June.
• Sierra Leone announced it has submitted its Article 7 report and Greece indicated it will do so ahead of its deadline. The Organization of American States said that it is working with St. Lucia and St. Vincent to submit their late reports.
• Jordan and New Zealand made positive statements on Article 2 (antivehicle mines with antihandling devices) and no state said anything negative.
• Language on Article 1 proposed by ICBL was adopted by the Standing Committee co-chair in a non-papr and will be discussed again at the next intersessional meetings in June.
• Language proposed by the ICRC and ICBL on the issue of mines retained for training was discussed for process, rather than objections to content.

Concerns for ICBL

• Consultations by the co-chairs over mines with antihandling devices (Article 2) is set to continue, but no substantial progress was made on the issue in this meeting.
• No State Party discussed measures that could be taken to convince Turkmenistan to reduce the 69,000 antipersonnel mines it has retained for training.

Quote of the Day

In response to a statement by Japan that Article 1 (prohibition on assist) applies only to areas under the jurisdiction and control of the government, Co-Chair Ambassador Chris Saunders of the Netherlands said:

Many of us, including you, are currently in Iraq operating in a territory not under our jurisdiction or control with a non-State Party to the Treaty [United States], so we all have a problem here that we need to address.