The Middle East and North Africa is a heavily mined region. Since 1940 landmines have been killing and maiming civilians. Only a few countries of the region have escaped the experience of the scourge of landmines. Egypt claims to be the most extensively mined country in the world, with an estimated 23 million mines. The biggest humanitarian problem caused by uncleared mines in the region is to be found in Iraqi Kurdistan, with an estimated 4 million mines. Other mine-affected countries include Kuwait, Morocco, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan. The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) has a serious problem with uncleared mines. Only Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are completely free from uncleared landmines.
Countries of the Middle East and North Africa have been among those most resistant to a total ban on antipersonnel landmines. Landmines have been extensively used throughout the region, most every nation has stockpiled antipersonnel mines and at least four countries (Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Israel) have been identified by Human Rights Watch as producers and exporters of antipersonnel mines. While Israel, Egypt, and Iran have declared that they no longer export antipersonnel mines, Iraq remains one of only two nations in the world known to have exported in the past that have not announced a halt.
The Canadian government-sponsored strategy conference held in Ottawa, from 3-5 October 1996 marked a turning point in the global movement toward a total ban on landmines. Fifty pro-ban governments (including only Iran from the region), twenty-four observer states (including Egypt, Israel and Morocco), dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international and United Nations agencies convened in Ottawa to strategize on ways to reach a total ban on antipersonnel mines. States agreed to a Final Declaration committing themselves to "seek the earliest possible conclusion of a legally-binding agreement to ban the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of antipersonnel mines." Perhaps more importantly, the participants developed a Chairman’s Agenda for Action, which laid out concrete steps at the international, regional and national levels for achieving a ban rapidly. And in a dramatic announcement at the end of the conference, Canada’s Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy stated that Canada would host a ban treaty signing conference in December 1997. The success of what has come to be known as the "Ottawa Process" has been stunning.
On 10 December 1996, U.N. General Assembly Resolution 51/45S, which urged all states to pursue vigorously an international agreement banning antipersonnel landmines, was passed 156-0, with only ten abstentions. Thirteen countries of the region voted "Yes" on the resolution while Israel and Syria abstained, and Iran, Iraq and Libya were absent.
Austria hosted a meeting from 12-14 February 1997 to begin discussions of the elements of the ban treaty. Prior to the meeting Austria circulated a draft ban treaty text which served as the basis for discussion. One hundred and eleven governments participated, though many of them were not prepared to commit to a December 1997 deadline. Fourteen countries from the region were in attendance in addition to representation by the League of Arab States. Subsequently, Germany hosted a technical meeting on possible verification measures for the ban treaty in late April 1997 which 120 governments attended, including ten from the region.
Belgium hosted a critical conference in late June 1997 in which 107 governments agreed to a declaration endorsing the principles of the Austrian draft ban treaty, the negotiation of the treaty in Oslo in September 1997, and the signing of the ban treaty in Ottawa in December. Three countries of the region (Jordan, Qatar and Yemen) endorsed the Brussels declaration and an additional thirteen countries of the region attended the meeting.
Eighty-nine governments came to Oslo, Norway as full participants, and another thirty-two as observers, to negotiate the ban treaty from 1-18 September 1997. The treaty prohibits the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines. It also requires that stockpiles be destroyed within four years of the treaty's entry into force, and that mines already in the ground be removed and destroyed within ten years. It also requires state parties to provide detailed information about antipersonnel mine stockpiles and minefields. It calls on states to provide assistance for care and rehabilitation of mine victims. It is a treaty strongly supported by the ICBL and ICRC. Six countries of the region (Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Yemen) attended the Oslo negotiations as full participants, eight as observers. Only Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Syria did not attend.
In November 1997 a conference in support of the Ottawa Process was hosted by the government of Yemen and attended by government representatives from more than a dozen countries in the region as well as representatives of NGOs, the Red Cross and the ICRC. In the conference’s "Sana’a declaration," participants invited governments to sign the Mine Ban Treaty in Ottawa in December 1997 or thereafter at the UN headquarters in New York or at minimum, to adhere to the Landmines Protocol of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
The only other regional initiative prior to the Yemen conference was a December 1995 resolution by the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (OIC Resolution 16/23-P) which states that "the OIC, by working towards the elimination of anti-personnel mines, would contribute to the strengthening of world peace and justice," but also states that "these efforts should take into account the security concerns of the member countries." The lack of regional initiatives or resolutions on landmines contrasts with measures taken by other regional bodies such as the Organization of African Unity, the Organization of American States and the European Union.
Following Oslo, Canada introduced a U.N. resolution supporting the December treaty signing, which was supported by 127 countries with none voting against it but nineteen abstentions (UNGA Resolution 52/38A). Eleven countries of the region voted "Yes" in support of this resolution, the four treaty signatories plus Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates while five abstained from voting (Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Syria). Iraq and Libya were absent.
On 3-4 December 1997, in Ottawa, Canada 122 countries signed the Mine Ban Treaty, including Algeria, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen, four out of a total of eighteen countries of the region. Another nine countries of the region sent representatives to witness the signing ceremonies. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called the treaty, "a landmark step in the history of disarmament. About this, there is no doubt. I am confident that it will provide the final impetus for a universal ban, encompassing all mine-producing and mine-affected countries." After the signing ceremony in Ottawa, the treaty was opened for signature at the United Nations in New York, where five more nations have signed for a total of 127.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its coordinator Jody Williams, were awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on 10 December 1997, largely because of their role in making the treaty a reality. Top priorities for the ICBL now include speedy ratification of the treaty by its 127 signatories, and convincing new governments to sign. The treaty does not enter into force -- become binding international law -- until six months after the first forty states have ratified. Only then does the clock start ticking on the crucial requirements to destroy stocks within four years and emplaced mines within ten years. States that have yet to sign from the region include: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Other non-signatories include China, India, Pakistan, Russian Federation and the United States.
A further challenge is monitoring the implementation of and compliance with the treaty. The treaty requires states to submit an annual report on their compliance to the U.N., which will then make it available for public scrutiny. But NGOs are worried that this is not enough and that there needs to be an annual independent assessment of progress not only by states, but non-states parties. There also needs to be an inventory of progress in mine clearance and victim assistance, and abuses of the Mine Ban Treaty must be exposed. Some lead members of the ICBL, including Human Rights Watch, have formed "Landmine Monitor" with the intention of carrying out these monitoring functions.
The other international instrument dealing with landmines is the CCW Landmines Protocol. The Landmines Protocol is not a total prohibition but rather a complicated series of rules on the use of landmines. A two-and-a-half-year review of the CCW at United Nations meetings in Geneva and Vienna ended on 3 May 1996 having failed to adequately address the humanitarian crisis caused by landmines with only weak amendments to Protocol II. To date, over 70 countries have ratified or acceded to the original 1980 CCW and 20 countries have ratified the amended Landmines Protocol, which will now enter into force on 3 December 1998. The CCW, along with its Landmines Protocol, will be reviewed again in 2001. No countries of the region are party to the amended Landmines Protocol of the 1980 CCW.
Other efforts are underway in the Conference on Disarmament, a United Nations forum for arms control negotiations located in Geneva, Switzerland with 61 member states, including Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Morocco and Syria. Several states, including the U.S. and France, want to see a ban on transfers of antipersonnel mines placed on the CD's agenda. Human Rights Watch believes that such an effort could be counter-productive to the overall objective of a total ban on the weapon.
The Mine Ban Treaty marks a watershed in disarmament and humanitarian law endeavors. Its unique blend of NGO and government activity and cooperation is clearly a new post-Cold War development. The challenge is to ensure the Mine Ban Treaty is not just beautiful words on paper, but that it becomes binding international law and is fully implemented, so that it brings about an end to the scourge of landmines. The nations of the Middle East and North Africa should heed the call of humanity and ban antipersonnel landmines now, so that no more children and other innocent civilians will be injured or killed by antipersonnel mines in the next century. The way to ensure this happens is to sign, ratify and implement the Mine Ban Treaty. This is the story of one strong girl who has neither lost her hope nor surrendered to her handicap caused by an antipersonnel landmine:
"During the war, I found a strange iron object that simply looked like a pen lying near my neighbour’s door. I called my younger sister and we discussed what it could be, but none of us knew. We picked it up and threw it on the floor to find out what was inside it. Suddenly the strange object exploded. It was an antipersonnel mine and it took away both of my arms and injured my knee and my sister’s toes."
Lini Abdula, pupil at Al Showkani School, Aden, Yemen
[Quoted in Christina Nelke (Radda Barnen, Yemen), "A Review of the Mine Awareness Programme in Three Yemeni Governorates Aden, Lahej and Abyan," undated.]