5 March 2009: Ten Years On: Still Striving for a Mine-Free Africa

Sunday 1 March 2009 marked 10-years since the entry-into-force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention).

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Countries began to ratify the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention on 3 December 1997 and it entered into force on 1 March 1999 when Burkina Faso on 16 September 1998, became the fortieth country to ratify it.

As of late February 2009, a total of 156 countries are States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

Under Article 1 of the Convention each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances:

To use anti-personnel mines;
To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines;
To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

Other State obligations include, “the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in mined areas under their jurisdiction or control, not later than ten years after the entry into force”; “providing assistance for the care and rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration, of mine victims and for mine awareness programs”. Each State Party is also required to enact domestic legislation to “prevent and suppress any activity prohibited” by the treaty, to destroy existing stocks. In addition, each State Party is obliged to report annually to the United Nations on progress made in implementing the Convention. States Parties to the Convention meet annually to consider matters such the operational status of the Treaty and technological developments to clear mines. Every five years, the United Nations Secretary-General convenes a Review Conference.

The first Review Conference, the “Summit on a Mine-Free World” was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2004. The conference concluded with the adoption of the Nairobi Action Plan that laid out a comprehensive framework with guidelines for States Parties to execute their obligations for the period 2005-2009.

With its 70 specific action points, the Nairobi Action Plan 2005-2009, “reaffirmed States’ unqualified commitment to the full and effective promotion and implementation of the Convention,” and their determination “to universalise the Convention, destroy stockpiled anti-personnel mines, clear mined areas and assist victims and survivors”.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the stigma attached to the use of anti-personnel mines means only two governments – Burma (Myanmar) and Russia – and a handful of non-state armed groups have deployed these weapons in the past few years. Some 42 million anti-personnel mines have been destroyed from stockpiles since 1997; only 13 of the more than 50 countries that manufactured anti-personnel mines in the early ‘90s still have a production capacity; trade in anti-personnel mines has virtually stopped; and large tracts of land have been cleared and returned to productive use.

Notwithstanding such progress, several challenges were identified at the 9th meeting of States Parties in November 2008.

These include: the failure of some States such as Belarus, Greece, and Turkey to meet their four-year stockpile destruction deadline; the lack of adequate mine risk education programmes in some countries and the inability of a number of African countries to fulfil their ten-year clearance obligation. The latter challenge has resulted in some countries being granted clearance deadline extensions: Chad (16 months); Mozambique (5 years); Senegal (7 years) and Zimbabwe (22 months). Of particular concern are media reports from Angola, Egypt, Eritrea, Niger, Somalia, Senegal and Zimbabwe that anti-personnel landmines continue to kill or maim innocent civilians. While the Nairobi Action Plan calls on those States that have not yet done so, to accede to the Convention and encourages signatories of the Convention to ratify it as soon as possible, in Africa, Morocco, Libya, Somalia and Egypt have yet to do so. The ICBL also claims that programmes to address the lifelong needs of mine survivors – estimated at almost half a million people worldwide - are still grossly inadequate in the vast majority of affected countries. Landmines still affect 70 states, and 6 territories.

Africa’s Common Position and the Second Review Conference

From 30 November to 4 December 2009, the Second Review Conference of the Treaty will take place in Cartagena, Colombia, under the chairpersonship of Norway, to assess progress made since the Nairobi meeting and to develop new goals that would “end, for all people for all time, the suffering caused by anti-personnel mines”.

It should be recalled that the African Union (AU) has hosted two important Conferences of African Experts on Landmines: the first in 1997, “Towards a Landmine-Free Africa” and the second in 2004, "Kempton Park – Seven Years After". The first resulted in the adoption of the Kempton Park Plan of Action towards the elimination of anti-personnel landmines in Africa and the establishment of the continent as an Anti-Personnel Mine Free Zone.

The second, while noting that significant progress has been made in Africa towards the goal of eliminating anti-personnel mines, called for more to be done to:

ensure the full universalization of the APM Ban Convention in Africa;
assist the Member States Parties concerned to fulfil their obligations to destroy their stockpiles within their four-year deadlines, and develop and implement national demining programmes with the view to meeting their ten-year mine clearance deadlines;
enhance the assistance provided to mine victims and to provide for their social and economic reintegration;
promote and develop Inter-African Cooperation and Africa’s capacity in the field of mine clearance and mine victim assistance and further mobilize the international community in support of the continent’s effort.

The second meeting of experts further recommended that the Peace and Security Council (PSC) remain seized with the issue of anti-personnel mines and develop a detailed Plan of Action, with timeframes, to facilitate the implementation of the establishment of the continent as an Anti-Personnel Mine Free Zone as Africa’s Common Position.

In the lead up to the Second Review Conference, the mine action community in Africa, and in particular African states should step up their efforts to meet the goal set out in the preamble of the Convention: “to put an end to the suffering and casualties caused by anti-personnel mines.” Africa, as the most affected continent has a duty to do this.

The AU therefore has an obligation to call for a 3rd Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines be held in order to review the implementation of the Common African Position and to reaffirm Africa as a mine-free continent – one in which the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is universally adhered to, with all stockpiles destroyed, all known mined areas cleared, and the physical rehabilitation and socio-economic inclusion of landmine survivors assured.

Gugu Dube, Junior Researcher and Noel Stott, Senior Research Fellow: Arms Management Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)