Mauritania Marks 100th Ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty
(26 July) Today the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) welcomed the 100th ratification of the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Mine Ban Treaty), when Mauritania deposited its instrument of ratification with the United Nations in New York.
“This landmark achievement of 100 ratifications shows how deeply and quickly the world is embracing a total ban on antipersonnel mines,” said Jody Williams, ICBL Ambassador. “Those who continue to cling to this discredited weapon should be feeling the heat,” said Ms. Williams, adding, “We will not rest until all countries of the world adhere to the ban, until the number of new victims reaches zero and until mine–affected land is demined and returned to communities.”
To date, 137 countries have signed the Mine Ban Treaty and 100 have ratified. Recent ratifications include Mauritania, Ghana, Dominican Republic, Côte d'Ivoire and Rwanda. Those countries which have already signed must still ratify in order to be fully bound by the treaty. The Mine Ban Treaty prohibits any use, production, trade or stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. It requires destruction of stockpiles within four years, removal of mines from the ground within ten years, and provision of care, rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration to landmine victims.
All of the Western Hemisphere has signed the ban treaty except the U.S. and Cuba, all of the European Union except Finland, all of NATO except the U.S. and Turkey. Forty-five of the 53 nations in Africa have signed the treaty. Other notable hold-outs include Russia, China, India, Pakistan and a number of countries in the Middle East.
Progress toward a global ban since the initial signing of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1997 in Ottawa, Canada has been impressive. “Globally, use of antipersonnel landmines is on the wane, production has dropped dramatically, export has stopped almost altogether, more than 20 million antipersonnel mines have been destroyed by more than 55 nations, funding for mine clearance has increased, and the number of mine victims in key heavily mined countries is dropping,” said Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, which is the lead agency for the ICBL’s Landmine Monitor initiative.
“We are alarmed at incidents of new use this past year by both the government of Angola, a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, and by opposition UNITA forces,” said Sylvie Brigot of Handicap International, a major humanitarian mine action organization. “We are outraged at the disregard for civilians shown by a number of governments refusing to sign the treaty who have used mines in the past year, most notably Russia, but also Burma, Eritrea, Israel, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia,” she added. The ICBL also condemns use of antipersonnel mines by armed rebel groups, including in Chechnya, Kosovo, Colombia, Uganda, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Burma and, most recently, the Philippines.
The ICBL is also concerned that while more mines are cleared from the ground now than new mines laid, the daily toll of mine victims remains unacceptable. In heavily mine-affected Cambodia, 417 landmine casualties were recorded from January to May of this year, compared to 634 casualties in same period in 1999, a drop of drop of 34 percent. But in other parts of the world, such as Angola and Chechnya, the situation for mine survivors remains grim.
“In the course of just one week, some seventeen people fell casualty to mines after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Southern Lebanon,” said Haboubba Aoun of the Beirut-based Landmines Resource Center. “This illustrates not only how these indiscriminate weapons continue to kill when peace has returned but also how mine action, including humanitarian demining and mine awareness education, are essential in peace agreements and post-conflict reconstruction and development,” she added.
The Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 11-15 September. Both States Parties and non-signatories to the ban treaty as well as the ICBL will attend this meeting which will gauge progress and discuss problems in universalization and implementation of the ban on antipersonnel mines.
Days ahead of that meeting, on 7 September, the ICBL will release its Landmine Monitor Report 2000: Toward a Mine-Free World detailing ban policy and humanitarian mine action in every country of the world. Landmine Monitor is an unprecedented global effort by non-governmental organizations to monitor an arms control/humanitarian law treaty. In addition to the launch of this second annual Landmine Monitor report, the ICBL will bring campaigners, deminers and survivors from around the globe to participate in the meeting and organize briefings, exhibits and public events.
The thirty-seven countries that have signed but not ratified are Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, São Tomé and Principe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu and Zambia.
For additional information please visit www.icbl.org or call:
Liz Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator +1-202-547-2667
