• UK
  • 04:57 23 Nov 2009
  • |    Geneva
  • 05:57 23 Nov 2009
 

Anti-personnel land mines

A soldier with a land mine detector. © Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images

The Ottawa Convention, popularly known as the 'Mine Ban Treaty', provides a total ban on anti-personnel mines (APMs). The Treaty was opened for signature on 3 December 1997 and as of 16 September 2005, 151 states agreed to be bound by its provisions and have taken individual steps to ratify the Treaty. The UK ratified the Convention on 31 July 1998, being among the 40 first states to do so, thus helping effect the Convention's entry into force on 1 March 1999.

Since the Treaty was adopted in 1997 tremendous progress has been made. It is estimated that approximately 37 million anti-personnel landmines have been destroyed which has significantly reduced the numbers of people either killed or injured by land mines. Despite this success, between 15,000 and 20,000 people per year are still injured by anti-personnel landmines leaving substantial work still to be done in the coming period.
 
The Land Mines Act (1998) which entered into force on the same day, enabled relevant provisions of the Convention to be incorporated into UK domestic law. The Act makes it a criminal offence to use, develop, produce, keep, or participate in the acquisition or transfer of an anti-personnel landmine.
 
The Sixth Meeting of States Parties (6MSP) was the first formal diplomatic gathering of the member states of the Mine Ban Treaty since the Review Conference in Nairobi in 2005. The Zagreb Meeting was the first time that the international community had gathered in a South Eastern Europe to discuss the global landmine problem and what is being done about it. The 6MSP assessed the progress in the application of the Nairobi Action Plan adopted at the Review Conference in 2004. This was concluded in the Zagreb Progress Report and was the centre-piece outcome of the 6MSP.
 
 
The UK has fulfilled many of its treaty obligation:
 
  • Ending the use of anti-personnel landmines by UK forces: Destruction of all operational stocks of anti-personnel landmines was completed in February 1999, prior to the entry into force of the Convention and four years ahead of the Convention deadline applicable to the UK. The UK decided to reduce the number of mines retained under Article 3 for training purposes to 1,795 mines by 31 December 2005.
  • Ban on the transfer of anti-personnel mines: No export licences have been issued in respect of anti-personnel landmines since the entry into force of the Convention.
  • Humanitarian mine clearance: The UK has been a major donor to humanitarian mine action through the Department for International Development. The UK provided: £12 million (2001/2), £10.7 million (2002/3), £4 million (2003) for mine clearance and co-ordination of mine action in Iraq and funding in 2004-2005 including £3 million project with the Kenyan government to establish a Mine Training Centre in Nairobi to act as a regional centre for Africa. The centre is run by the Kenyan military with oversight from British Military experts and became operational in February 2005.  The aim is to train upwards of 200 people per year for demining operations throughout the African subcontinent.

Under Article V the UK is legally bound to clear all territories under its control from anti-personnel mines by 1 March 2009.  The only UK territory which is mine affected is the Falkland Islands.  All mine fields are clearly marked and fenced and since the mines were laid there have been no civilian casualties.  The UK undertook with the Republic of Argentina a feasibility study to examine the extent of the problem and best methods for clearance.



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