Under the Mine Ban Treaty, States Parties have 10 years to clear all their mined areas. The first deadlines – for 20 mine-affected states – will occur in 2009. States can ask for an extension of the deadline for up to 10 years, and consideration of these requests will take place at the 9th Meeting of the States Parties this November.

“Governments need to show that they are taking the Mine Ban Treaty’s clearance obligations seriously,” said Tamar Gabelnick, ICBL Treaty Implementation Director. “The credibility of the treaty’s mine clearance obligation will depend in large part on how extension requests are dealt with this year,” she added.

Mine action worldwide has saved countless lives and made thousands of square kilometres of land safe to work and walk on again. However, in a number of countries, progress has been slower than expected and in some cases unacceptable.

Alarmingly, more than three-quarters of the states with 2009 deadlines appear set to miss them, including: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Jordan, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Peru, Senegal, Thailand, United Kingdom (Falklands), Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Many of these states are likely to request long extensions of their deadlines.

In several cases – notably Denmark, Ecuador, Niger, Peru, Senegal, the UK and Venezuela – failure to complete clearance on time is largely due to unjustifiable delays in starting operations. Especially worrying is the lack of progress by Niger, the UK and Venezuela in even initiating the task of clearing mined areas.

“Venezuela has declared it is maintaining its mined areas because of a threat from Colombian insurgents. This is clearly inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the treaty which forbids any use of antipersonnel mines,” Gabelnick added.

Some heavily affected countries still have incredibly high estimates of contaminated areas, and the inability to pinpoint affected areas hinders the effective deployment of clearance assets. “The amount of land cleared has been unacceptably low in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, and Thailand. After nine years and high expenditure in demining, mine affected communities as well as international donors deserve to see more positive results,” said Stuart Casey-Maslen, Mine Action Coordinator and Final Editor of the Landmine Monitor, the ICBL’s project that monitors compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty.

“While it was expected that the most severely mined countries might not meet the treaty-mandated 10-year deadlines, it is crucial that extensions are not given as blank cheques but rather as a result of a transparent and meaningful process with strict benchmarks to be followed,” Casey-Maslen added, explaining that such a process should help mine-affected states plan carefully how to complete their work in the safest and most efficient manner possible.

The ICBL strongly encourages careful consideration of each request for extension, taking into account all available information.

This year is also critical for the treaty’s stockpile destruction obligation. The three countries with 1 March 2008 deadlines – Belarus, Greece, and Turkey – failed to destroy their large stocks, and since there is no possibility for an extension, they are now in violation of the treaty. This is the first time that State Parties with millions of mines still in stocks have missed their deadline and they currently have no projected end dates in sight.

On the positive front, Burundi and Sudan both finished destroying their stockpiles in time for their 1 April 2008 deadline.

Background

Since 1999, a total of 156 states have adhered to the Mine Ban Treaty. All States with antipersonnel mines on their territory – roughly one-third of the total – are obliged to clear and destroy them “as soon as possible but not later than 10 years” after becoming party to the treaty. As part of this process, they are also required to make “every effort” to identify all mined areas and to mark and fence them, pending clearance.

A total of 26 States that have declared themselves affected by antipersonnel mines have deadlines by the end of 2009. To date, only six have reported success: Bulgaria, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Swaziland.

Among other countries with 2009 clearance deadlines, Malawi is on target, with Djibouti and France not far behind (their obligations relate to a French ammunition storage area in Djibouti close to the capital). Uganda equally has the potential to fulfill its Article 5 obligations before the deadline.

As of 1 April, 83 States Parties had finished destroying their stockpiles, destroying around 41.8 million antipersonnel mines total. Another 60 states declared no stockpiles; five states have not yet reported on stockpiles but are not believed to have any; and seven states still have stocks to destroy.

An ongoing concern is also the provision of comprehensive assistance to landmine survivors, estimated by Landmine Monitor Report 2007 at 473,000 people worldwide. In all of the most heavily affected countries, from Afghanistan to Cambodia, from Iraq to Angola, victim assistance is still lacking, and is insufficient to have a meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of survivors and their families.

Thirty-nine states have not adhered to the treaty yet. These include two states that signed the treaty in 1997 but have not yet ratified it (Marshall Islands and Poland), three out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, USA) as well as regional powers including India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan.

The obligation to destroy all stockpiles serves both the treaty’s disarmament and humanitarian goals. First and foremost, destroying mines is a cornerstone of a treaty aiming to eliminate a class of weapons. Their destruction also ensures that the mines can never be laid in the ground and can therefore never claim a victim.

The good news:

• The stockpile destruction obligation of the Mine Ban Treaty is one of its most successful provisions
• 83 States Parties have finished destroying their stockpiles, destroying around 41.8 million antipersonnel mines total. 60 states declared no stockpiles; 5 states have not yet reported on stockpiles but are not believed to have any.
• Only four of those states missed their deadlines over the past nine years:
  • Cape Verde and Guinea, each of which only had very small stocks;
  • Turkmenistan, which mistakenly believed it could retain tens of thousands of mines for training purposes; and
  • Afghanistan, which had to convince a regional leader to hand over a stockpile of around 1,000 mines under his control.
• Both States Parties with 1 April 2008 deadlines met them just on time: Burundi destroyed its stockpile of 610 mines on 17 March, and Sudan finished destroying its last 6078 AP mines on 31 March.

The bad news:

• Three countries missed their 1 March 2008 deadline: Belarus (3.4 million remaining), Greece (1.6 million remaining), and Turkey (2.9 million remaining)
• None have predicted an end date for the destruction of these large stockpiles
• Belarus’ remaining mines are PFM mines, which contain a chemical explosive that is particularly difficult and expensive to destroy.
• Turkey presented has a new high-tech weapons disposal facility but is still incapable of predicting when it can finish the destruction of its stockpile. In 2006, Turkey destroyed 94,111 mines by open detonation.
• Greece has not informed other States Parties about its failure to comply with its deadline and apparently has not yet finalized a contract for their destruction. It has not destroyed any mines to date.
• No State Party has yet publicly reacted to these severe treaty infractions.
• Of the other States Parties with upcoming stockpile destruction deadlines:
  • Ethiopia (deadline of 1 June 2009) has not yet submitted its initial transparency report, due on 28 November 2005, that should have provided details about its stockpile among other critical information
  • Ukraine (deadline of 1 June 2010) has around 6 million PFM mines. In the spring of 2007 an EC-funded contract to destroy these mines was abruptly cancelled by the contractor. The contractor did not destroy any mines before leaving.

Countries with 2008+ Stockpile Destruction Deadlines

As of 1 April 2008 the following 83 states had completed the destruction of their antipersonnel mine stockpiles, except in some cases those retained for research and training purposes:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Gabon, Germany, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Yemen, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

60 States Parties have declared that they did not possess stockpiles of antipersonnel mines, except in some cases those retained for research and training purposes:

Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte D’Ivoire, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Holy See, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, Niger, Niue, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Timor Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu. A number of these apparently had stockpiles in the past, but used or destroyed them prior to joining the Mine Ban Treaty including Eritrea, Rwanda and Senegal.

An additional five states have not yet formally declared the presence or absence of stockpiles, but are not believed to possess any mines:

Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Haiti, Kuwait and São Tomé e Principe.

Nobel Peace Laureate Ms. Jody Williams will deliver this lecture to honour the legacy of long-time disarmament campaigner John Vernon Head. In her only public talk during her visit to the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, Jody will talk about similarities and differences between the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and current efforts to establish an agreement to prohibit cluster munitions.

John Vernon Head April 1927 – February 2007.

John Head, QSM, died one year ago on 4 February 2007. W holeheartedly committed to building peace, John founded the New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines (CALM) in 1993. He played a key role in securing New Zealand’s support for the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and provided the ICBL’s Landmine Monitor research updates for New Zealand and the Pacific until 2006. John lobbied tirelessly for the mine ban to be universally accepted across the region. He also initiated CALM’s advocacy call for cluster munitions to be banned.

Jody Williams

In 1997, Jody Williams became the tenth woman in its almost 100-year history to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, honored for her work to secure the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. In January 2006, Williams established the Nobel Women’s Initiative together with five of her sister Nobel Peace laureates. She is an eloquent and inspirational speaker who serves as the ICBL’s ambassador.

Please RSVP

RSVP no later than 15 February to CALM (Deborah Morris-Travers) Tel. (06) 364-5256 calmdeborah@yahoo.com

National television network TV 3 covered the report launch. Sincere thanks to Peter Harwood of Rangitoto for putting together the day’s events as well as for preparing the teaching unit on landmines.

Sunday 21 October 2007

START and FINISH:

Karori Pool – 7.30.a.m.

While Runners, walkers and cyclist – head North thru Ngaio, J’vlle and Glenside to Tawa, in whatever combinations chosen – ensure you turn around to back to be at the FINISH by 11.30.a.m.

Swimmers use Karori pool

12 noon. Free THAI BANQUET LUNCH

Compliments of Wellington Thai Restaurants and the Wellington Thai Community.

Sponsorship: We encourage each entrant to fund-raise $50 which will pay for the manufacture and fitting of one new prosthetic leg. (E.g. 10 friends at $5.00 each.)

Receipts for donations / sponsorship on request from
Brian Hayes, Treasurer, CALM,
P O Box 17-195, Karori, or Bank Direct to
Campaign Against Landmines NZ (CALM)
Westpac A/c 030502 0185340 00

Registration: Download the registration form

Organisor: Brian Hayes, Treasurer, Campaign Against Landmines
N.Z. (CALM) (ph 04 918 8331) Brian.hayes@justice.govt.nz
Or, Khun Nattaya (Leang) Payanon. Phone 04 476 8305 (evenings)

The Cluster Munition Coalition welcomes the entry into force of Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) on Sunday 12 November which will oblige states to provide information on ERW and to clear up the weapons they leave littered around after conflicts should help prevent further human suffering from unexploded ordnance.

However, the new instrument is not enough. This Protocol was negotiated against the background of civil society concern over cluster munitions, yet governments at the time failed to include specific obligations on cluster munitions limiting the accord to generic post-conflict effects of ERW. Even if the new protocol V does result in improvements for countries affected by explosive remnants of war, it contains no specific obligations on cluster munitions – a main source of ERW – and allows their use to continue.

“A new treaty is needed urgently to prohibit cluster munitions, weapons that have caused documented and unacceptable harm for over 40 years. The devastation in Lebanon is just the latest example of what happens when people use this weapon. Despite this harm no international law currently exists to curb the use of cluster munitions,” said Thomas Nash, Coordinator of the Cluster Munition Coalition.

The Cluster Munition Coalition has noted positive developments in this regard over the past months. Belgium banned the weapon in February 2006. Norway adopted a moratorium in June 2006. In a fresh international initiative, Sweden proposed a negotiating mandate on cluster munitions last week at the Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva. Within the first week of the conference support for this proposal for negotiations jumped from 6 states to 18 and the number is growing. However, several key countries are not yet in favour of negotiations and are refusing to support work towards a new instrument on cluster munitions.

There is a growing momentum in parliaments and within governments for a new instrument to be negotiated on cluster munitions in the wake of the widespread problem from cluster munitions used in the latest war in Lebanon and Israel. States have until Friday 17 November to support negotiations in Geneva. If this opportunity is missed then a new process on cluster munitions must be initiated along the lines of the 1997 negotiations to ban anti-personnel landmines.

• The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) was established in November 2003 with the goal of addressing the impact of cluster munitions on civilians. The CMC has a membership of over 180 non-governmental organisations in 50 countries worldwide.

• The CMC is led by a Steering Committee of DanChurchAid, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, IPPNW Russia, Landmine Action (UK), Landmine Resource Centre (Lebanon), Mines Action Canada, Pax Christi, Protection (Egypt) and Norwegian People’s Aid.

For more information contact:

Deborah Morris-Travers, CMC representative in New Zealand 06 364 6338 or 0274 544 299

Thomas Nash, Coordinator for the Cluster Munition Coalition on +44 (0)7711 926 730, or visit the website at http://:www.stopclustermunitions.org

Cluster munitions are air- or ground-launched canisters that can contain up to 650 individual submunitions. Although the submunitions are generally designed to explode on impact, they often fail to do so. Cluster munitions have had a horrific impact on civilians in most of the conflicts in which they have been used, including those in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Laos. The ICRC first called for action on this issue within the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 2000. Although a number of States have begun reviewing their policies on the use of cluster munitions, there has not been an effective international response.

Speaking to representatives of international media in Geneva, ICRC director Philip Spoerri said that the situation in Lebanon since the recent conflict had again demonstrated the need for urgent action. He described many towns and rural areas in southern Lebanon as being littered with unexploded cluster submunitions that claimed many new victims each week. Mr. Spoerri also emphasized the long-term impact that cluster munitions could have on agriculture by contaminating productive land and the challenge they posed for relief and reconstruction efforts. He stressed that in Laos, over 30 years after cluster munitions had been used, unexploded submunitions were still regularly killing and maiming people in rural areas. “It is a terrible reality that civilians are so often caught up in the horrors of modern conflict,” he said, “but it is simply unacceptable that they should return to homes and fields littered with explosive debris. Cluster munitions are often the worst offenders given the massive numbers in which they are used, their area-wide effects and their well-known problems of accuracy and reliability.”

After the Kosovo conflict in 2000, the ICRC called for a ban on the use of cluster munitions in populated areas. It also launched an initiative for an international treaty on explosive remnants of war that was concluded by 91 States in 2003 and will enter into force on 12 November 2006. The agreement – a protocol to the CCW – assigns responsibility to the parties to an armed conflict for clearing or providing assistance for clearing any failed munitions they have used and for making information on the types and location of munitions used rapidly available. However, it does not contain specific restrictions on cluster munitions or specific requirements to reduce their failure rate.

Phil Goff squeezing tomato sauce from the CALM fundraising sauce sachet on to his fish and chips at the 2006 Landmine monitor launch.

The New Zealand Launch was held at the Beehive in Parliament Buildings at 0600 hrs GMT on 13 September 2006. We took the opportunity not only to launch LM 2006 but also to launch an Appeal for funds for the British Mine Action Group who are now clearing landmines and unexploded cluster munitions in Lebanon.

Speeches

The CALM Convenor, David Zwartz welcomed guests and in his speech talked about the Report and confirmed that the information in this report was exhaustively checked and referenced and this provided an outstanding example of how an NGO can provide verification for an international treaty. He drew the Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control, Hon Phil Goff’s attention to the drop in Mine Action funding by the New Zealand Government quoting from the LM page 81 and asked the Minister for an assurance that this drop in funding will be corrected. However he went on to say that he acknowledged with gratitude, the support every New Zealand Government has given to CALM and the work of the New Zealand Defence Force that has been supporting demining in many of the world’s worst-affected countries. David Zwartz concluded by noting The Government’s strong stand on controls for cluster munitions and said that as their effect was as damaging and distressing as anti-personnel mines, their use should be made “as unacceptable as the use of anti-personnel mines”.

The keynote speaker was the Minister, Hon Phil Goff, but before he began his prepared speech he said that the reported drop in funding of NZ$ 1.3 was because a number of demining operations had come to an end. This would be fully corrected in the coming year and that the Government fully supported not only the full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty but also the work of CALM and the ICBL.

In his prepared speech Mr Goff spoke of the humanitarian consequences arising from the use of mines. He spoke of the positive work of the Ottawa Convention and how it was a leading model for how disarmament and humanitarian objectives can be pursued together and can be achieved through partnerships between state and civil society. He spoke of New Zealand’s support for mine clearing operations in five countries and how over the years, 117 New Zealand Defence Force Personnel were involved in mine clearing support in Cambodia.. Mr Goff spoke with some feeling of the serious humanitarian issues created by the use of cluster munitions in Lebanon and New Zealand was taking the lead, along with nine like minded countries in calling for strong and legally binding controls on the design and use of cluster munitions. In closing he paid tribute to the work of the ICBL, the ICRC and CALM. Mr Goff’s full speech is now on CALM’s website.

Hon Deborah Morris-Travers, Deputy Convenor of CALM and the former politician who signed the Ottawa Treaty for New Zealand in 1997, read a statement on behalf of Publicis Mojo. This Auckland based company designed and produced 50,000 tomato sauce sachets as a means of raising funds for CALM to send finance to British Mine Action Group (MAG) who are now clearing landmines and unexploded cluster munitions in Lebanon. After reading the statement from Publicis Mojo, Deborah then added her own comments; listing the Gold public relations awards this sachet appeal had won at Cannes and in NZ, acknowledged those who had been working on it, and then went on to describe the situation in Lebanon and the need for people to support the appeal. The sachets were given with fish, chips and salad at the end of the evening.

Guests present

There were 50 people present plus three from the media In addition to the Guest Speaker, Parliament was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon Winston Peters, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Select Committee and two other Members of Parliament. Ambassadors or High Commissioners or their Deputies came from Australia, Britain, China, France, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Pakistan. Peru. Russia, Switzerland and Thailand. The Armed Forces were represented by five senior officers including Commodore Bruce Pepperel RNZN, representing Lt Gen Jerry Mateparae, the Chief of the Defence Force.

Others who attended were from Government Departments, NGOs, University and CALM supporters.

While dinner was being served The Minister of Foreign Affairs told me that he was concerned at the number of Pacific nations yet to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty, and he promised the full support of his Department to achieve more accessions.

Media

Earlier in the day there had been a TV interview with Hon Phil Goff and David Zwartz. This was played during the evening news session on the national TV station TV1. A reporter and photographer from the Wellington Dominion Post attended and there was an article and a photo of Mr Goff in the following morning’s paper. We are circulating a press release with sachets for each provincial paper and Publicis Mojo are arranging a news item accompanied by sachets for each regional paper around the Wellington region. You have a copy of the newspaper article. Mary Wareham has sent the ICBL the text of the newspaper article.

Mr Christopher Travers will be sending you more photos. On the marble wall behind the speaker’s lectern there were campaign posters along with photos of the situation in Lebanon today, sent by MAG and printed by Publicis Mojo.

Conclusion

The whole evening was a great occasion to promote the launch of LM2006 and the campaigns of CALM and the ICBL. It certainly got the MAG appeal off to a good start.

John V Head
Landmine Monitor Researcher for the Pacific for LM 2006

Phil Goff addressing the 2006 Landmine monitor launch.

Disarmament Minister Phil Goff paid tribute to the work of those dedicated to the eradication of landmines at the launch in Wellington tonight of the 2006 Landmine Monitor Report, produced by the Campaign Against Landmines. Mr Goff spoke of the scope and nature of the problem of unexploded landmines and detailed the New Zealand contribution to the fight against all unexploded munitions.

Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control
Hon Phil Goff

I am pleased to be here to launch this year’s edition of the Landmine Monitor.

This is the eighth edition of the report, which monitors the global ban on landmines, and tracks whether countries are implementing and complying with the Ottawa Convention.

It is a significant undertaking. A network of 71 researchers from 62 countries gathered information to produce this year’s version.

It is a valuable effort by civil society to hold governments accountable to their obligations under the Ottawa Convention. This is critical if we are to eliminate landmines and reduce, and end, the awful impact these weapons continue to have on civilian populations in many parts of the world.

Landmines are weapons that do not discriminate between soldiers and civilians, or adults and children.

We are all aware of the humanitarian consequences arising out of their use including death, amputation of limbs, long-term disability and poverty.

The 2006 Landmine Monitor estimates that there are still an appalling 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war each year.

The Ottawa Convention But there is, at least, a positive side.

De-mining progress under the Ottawa Convention has been impressive.

• Over 740 square kilometres of land was de-mined by mine action programmes in 2005, more than in any previous year.
• State parties to the Convention collectively have destroyed nearly 40 million anti-personnel mines since it came into effect in 1997, and around 700,000 in the last year alone.

The Ottawa Convention is a leading model for how disarmament and humanitarian objectives can be pursued together, and can be achieved through partnerships between states and civil society.

In an otherwise bleak period for the international disarmament agenda, the Convention stands out as one of the few bright lights.

Over 150 States are now party to the Convention, representing around 80% of the world’s nations.

New Zealand has consistently called on the 40 states outside the Ottawa Convention to join this treaty.

The Asia-Pacific could be doing better in this regard. Asia stands out as one of the most mine-affected regions in the world. Yet it also has one of the lowest rates of accession to the Convention.

In the Pacific, I am pleased to learn that the Cook Islands ratified the Convention in March of this year though we are still encouraging others of our neighbours to do so.

New Zealand Position

New Zealand ratified the Ottawa Convention in 1999 and is a strong supporter of the Ottawa process.

New Zealand’s main contribution to global mine action has been through assistance from NZAID, to mine clearance operations as well as the UN’s Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

Mine action assistance is an integral component in peacekeeping and peace building, if long-term sustainable development is to be achieved. De-mining reduces the loss of life and limb and opens up land for economic production.

New Zealand has a strong reputation for its expertise in de-mining. Through the work of our mine clearance experts, we have helped mine-affected communities re-build and restore their local economies. We have supported mine clearance operations in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, and Mozambique through the provision of technical personnel.

Some 117 New Zealand Defence Force personnel, for example, were involved in mine clearing support in Cambodia.

New Zealand has also provided funding support for non-government organisations involved in mine clearance and mine awareness programmes in Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka.

Last year, for example, we gave over NZ$340,000 to the Cambodian Trust School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, to train people to make and fit artificial limbs for mine victims.

Our annual contribution to mine clearance and related development activity in 2005/2006 was NZ$1.3 million, down on the previous year as a number of de-mining operations came to an end.

However, NZAID will increase New Zealand’s funding to the UN Mine Action Service to $500,000 per annum from January 2007.

The New Zealand Defence Force contributes an officer to the UN Mine Action Service based in New York. Another officer is serving as an Instructor to the US Department of Defense Humanitarian De-mining Training Centre.

Our New York-based officer is currently serving in Beirut, coordinating action to clear landmines and explosive materials. This is critical for the prevention of further loss of human life and for facilitating delivery of humanitarian aid in Southern Lebanon.

Most of you will be aware of the serious humanitarian created by the use of cluster munitions in Lebanon.

One hundred thousand cluster bomblets are estimated to be lying on the ground in Lebanon. These need to be cleared before people can safely return to normal life.

We are currently considering what further assistance the New Zealand Defence Force can provide in this area.

New Zealand is also taking the lead, in concert with like-minded countries such as Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico and Jordan, in calling for strong and legally binding controls on the design and use of cluster munitions.

I would like to acknowledge the work of CALM in raising awareness of this issue.

Looking to the Future

The next few years are going to be particularly challenging for the international mine ban agenda. Mine-affected States Parties will be approaching their ten-year deadline for the destruction of anti-personnel mines in mined areas, as required under Article 5 of the Convention, and a number will not meet their deadline.

Despite all the good work done, vast amounts of land remain to be cleared.

We are urging mine-affected States to put in place comprehensive and realistic plans, continue to train de-miners and to make use of all available resources.

Conclusion

There is now largely an established international norm against the use of landmines, even amongst those states that have not formally subscribed to the Convention.

Since the Convention came into force, major strides have been made in clearing mined areas, destroying stockpiled mines, reducing the number of new victims and assisting more victims.

We are inching closer to creating a world free of anti-personnel mines. But there is still much more work to do. The information provided by the Landmine Monitor provides both a sobering reminder of this, and an important gauge, and record, of the progress made so far.

In closing, I would like to pay tribute to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the International Committee of the Red Cross and New Zealand’s Campaign Against Landmines.

Their, and your, work has already helped strengthen the Ottawa Convention. Their dedication to projects such as Landmine Monitor will ensure that the profile of the landmine issue remains at the forefront of political and public consciousness, and it will play a central role in moving to the ultimate goal of a mine-free world.

Contact: Jeremy Seed (press secretary) 04 471 9794 or 021 278 7233 Jeremy.seed@parliament.govt.nz

All Phil Goff’s media releases and speeches are posted at http://www.beehive.govt.nz