The majority of armed conflicts in the world today involve armed opposition groups who act autonomously from recognised governments. These groups, known as non-state actors (NSAs), include rebel groups, irregular armed groups, insurgents, dissident armed forces, guerrillas, liberation movements, and de facto territorial governing bodies. The NSA Working Group believes that there are about 170 such non-state armed actors throughout the world at the beginning of 2000. In ideology, objectives, strategies, form and level of organisation, support-base, legitimacy and degree of international recognition, NSAs vary greatly.
Non-State Actors and Landmines
Although not all NSAs use landmines, landmines are manufactured, used, and stockpiled by NSAs in many conflicts around the world. NSAs may have de facto control over mined land. The people in whose name they fight may face a serious landmine problem.
Efforts to eliminate the use of landmines have, up until now, focused chiefly on states. The Mine Ban Treaty, accepted as an international standard, is open for signature by states, but not NSAs. However, the majority of landmines are laid in the context of armed conflict where both state and non-state armed forces may be laying mines. The anti-landmine campaign, like any serious attempt to mitigate the impact of war and contribute to the achievement of peace, must face the reality of non-state actors operating independently of governments. To achieve a truly universal ban on antipersonnel mines, non-state actors must be engaged in the ban process.
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Use of landmines by NSAs in major armed conflicts during the 1990s makes it clear that an inter-state ban alone is insufficient to stop new landmines from being put into the ground.
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An increasing number of NSAs have acknowledged the need to reconsider their use of landmines. Unilateral statements and bilateral agreements with clear references to mines have been made by non-state armed groups in Sudan, the Philippines, Somalia, Colombia, Western Sahara, Kosovo/Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, among others. Some of these groups have already publicly committed themselves to a ban on landmine use. Others have indicated their willingness to make a renunciation of mines, contingent on their opponent governments doing the same. Still others appear willing to support mine clearance and victim assistance programmes in areas under their control.
These promising developments encourage a systematic and concerted approach to engaging NSAs in the landmine ban. NSA adherence to a total ban may, in addition, help pressure their government opponents to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.