Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine have taken or consider measures to withdraw from the Convention on the Prohibition of Use, Storage, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personcts and their Destruction-also known as the Ottawa Convention, after the Canadian City where the process was launched.
“These weapons are likely to cause serious and long -term and long -term damage to civilians, including children,” said Volker Türk, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, in a statement. “Like the other international humanitarian treaties, the Ottawa Convention was mainly designed to govern the conduct of the parties to armed conflicts.”
“Adhering them to peacetime to withdraw from them in wartime or for newly invoked national security considerations seriously undermines the framework of international humanitarian law.”
A threat to civilians
Anti-personnel mines are one of the two main types of mines and target people-as opposed to anti-vehicle mines. However, because these two mines are triggered automatically, they lead to a large number of civil dead, especially children.
Their fatal risks persist long after the end of hostilities, contaminating agricultural land, playgrounds and houses, and constituting a constant threat to without distrust civilians.
Accessive in 1997, the Ottawa Convention prohibits signatories from using, storing, producing or transferring anti-personal mines due to the threat that these weapons constitute civilians, especially children.
During the two and a half decades since its adoption, the Ottawa Convention has 166 states parties, led to a marked reduction in the use of anti-personal mines.
Reversing trends
However, in recent years, these positive trends have started to reverse with the number of civilians killed and injured by mines increasing by 22% in 2024 – 85% of the victims were civilians and half of them were children.
Despite progress, some 100 million people in 60 countries still live under the threat of terrestrial mines.
In Ukraine, for example, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimates that more than 20% of the country’s land is contaminated – amounting to 139,000 square kilometers.
Likewise, terrestrial mines are still a significant threat to Cambodia, decades after the end of the conflict and the years of deactivation efforts.
Maintain international law
Mr. Türk urged all parties to the Ottawa Convention to maintain their international legal obligations concerning anti-personal and non-signs to join the Convention.
“With so many civilians suffering from the use of anti-personal mines, I call all states to abstain from leaving any international humanitarian law and immediately suspending any withdrawal process that could be in progress.”
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
