Key developments since May 2005: Vanuatu ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 16 September 2005 and the treaty entered into force on 1 March 2006.
On 4 December 1997, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vital Soksok, signed the Mine Ban Treaty on behalf of the Republic of Vanuatu. Parliament approved ratification of the treaty on 27 May 2005 and the instrument of ratification was officially deposited with the UN on 16 September 2005. The treaty entered into force for Vanuatu on 1 March 2006.
The status of national implementation measures, as called for in Article 9, is not yet known. The country’s initial Article 7 transparency report was due on 28 August 2006.
Vanuatu did not participate in the treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2005 and May 2006 nor the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Zagreb, Croatia in November-December 2005.[1]
Vanuatu voted in support of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 60/80 on 8 December 2005, calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. It has voted for similar annual UNGA resolutions in the past.[2]
In March 2001, a government representative told Landmine Monitor that Vanuatu had no stockpiled antipersonnel mines.[3] Vanuatu is not thought to have ever produced, imported, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines.
The islands are not believed to be mine-affected, but there are still major dumps of military equipment and other explosive remnants of war left over from World War II. A 2003 report described the effects of this contamination as residual, with no casualties reported in recent years and few indications of detrimental effects on land use.[4]
[1] Vanuatu’s first participation in a Mine Ban Treaty-related meeting since signing the treaty was at the June 2004 intersessional meetings. It also attended the First Review Conference in Nairobi, Kenya in November-December 2004.
[2] Vanuatu was absent from the votes in 1999, 2001 and 2002, but supported the 2000, 2003, and 2004 resolutions.
[3] Interview with Paul Sami, Head of Asia-Pacific Division, Department of Foreign Affairs of Vanuatu, Wellington (New Zealand), 27 March 2001.
[4] Landmine Action, “Explosive Remnants of War: A Global Survey,” London, June 2003, p. 35.