Landmines
Landmines are unacceptable weapons. Their use is a violation of universally applicable international humanitarian law. During war, these victim-activated weapons strike combatants and civilians without discrimination and are as likely to kill and maim a child as an enemy soldier. They remain active and continue to take innocent lives long after hostilities have ended. Beyond their direct threat for local populations, landmines, by denying access to precious land, water and infrastructure, increase the difficulty of survival, obstruct post-conflict reconstruction efforts and impede the socio-economic development of affected countries.
Science
1992, humanitarian organisations, notably the ICBL, have campaigned relentlessly
against anti-personnel mines [AP mines]. This work culminated in 1997 with the
adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. However,
despite the important progress already achieved, much remains to be done before
it can be said that the scourge of landmines has been eradicated. One of the
mine challenges today is that posed by non-state actors both as mine users and
mine victims.
Landmines
continue to take innocent lives at an alarming rate. Landmines continue to pose
a humanitarian and socio-economic problem of crisis proportions in too many
countries. Too many anti-personnel mines are still used today by both State and
non-state actors.
Non-State
Actors
the majority of armed conflicts in the world today involve one or more armed groups operating autonomously from recognised governments. In 2001, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)*, only two of the 25 major armed conflicts in the world were taking place between States. As armed entities active in combat, as do facto rulers within the territory under their control or as political organisations which may eventually be party to a peace settlement, NSAs have become major actors in modern armed conflicts.
Most of the conflicts nowadays are internal. In 2001, 23 of the 25 major armed conflicts involve non-state armed groups. In ideology, objectives, strategies, form and level of organisation, support-base, legitimacy and degree of international recognition, such groups very greatly.
*SIPRI Yearbook 2001 Armaments Disarmament and International Security, Oxford University Press, 2001.
Non-State
Actors and Landmines
Landmines have been and continue to be used-and often also product – by NSAs in many armed conflicts around the world. According to Landmine .....itor 2001, at least 30 armed groups are reported to have used this weapon in 2000 and 2001, in Angola, Burma, Colombia, India-Pakistan/Kashmir, Macedonia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia/Chechnya, Senegal/Casamance, Sir Lank and in Uganda to give just a few examples.
Moreover, non-state actors are active or exercise de facto control over mined land, like in Sudan, Somalia/Somaliland or Northern Iraq/Iraqi Kurdistan. Their own combatants and the people in whose name they fight thus face a serious landmine problem and are often themselves victims of this weapon. In addition, humanitarian access to such areas is often limited, if not impossible.
The NSA issue has also an adverse impact on the campaign against landmines directed at States. In some countries undergoing armed conflict, governments justify their own refusal to ban AP mines on the grounds that the NSAs they are fighting against, continue to use them. In such cases, renunciation by armed groups may help pressure their opponent governments to reciprocate and accede to the Ottawa Treaty. Moreover, as in the case of the Africa, National Congress [ANC/MK] in South Africa, some NSAs can eventually become governments or, like the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK] in Northern Iraq/Iraqi Kurdistan, are already the facto governing authorities in areas under their control.
These considerations made it evident that a ban by State alone is insufficient to solve the landmine problem. Up to now, efforts to eliminate the use of this weapon have focused chiefly on States. The Ottawa Treaty, like all international treaties, can be signed only by recognised States.
However, the majority of landmines are found today in the context of armed conflict or civil wars where both State and non-state armed forces are using them. it is therefore necessary to develop a complementary approach to the Ottawa Treaty aimed at securing the banning of AP mines by armed groups. Only by engaging all of the parties involved in today's conflicts can a truly universal ban on this weapon be achieved and, in so doing, a comprehensive prevention of mine accidents.
The use
of landmines by NSAs makes it clear that an inter-state ban alone is
insufficient to stop new landmines from being put into the ground.
Engaging
Non-State Actors
in
the Main Ban Process
Geneva call appeals on all armed groups throughout the world to publicly ban AP mines. To facilitate this process, it provides a mechanism whereby NSAs can sign a "Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines and for Cooperation in Mine Action", or deposit their own mine ban declarations. The custodian for these deeds is the Government of the Republic and canton of Geneva. Under the "Deed of Commitment", signatory groups commit themselves to prohibit under any circumstances the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of AP mines and to cooperate in stockpiles destruction, mine clearance, victim assistance, mine awareness, and various other forms of mine action activities.
Furthermore, the accountability provision in the "Deed of Commitment" binds signatory groups to allow and cooperate in the monitoring and verification by Geneva Call of their commitment to a total ban on AP mines, notably by providing information and compliance reports as well as allowing field visits and inspections.
Geneva
CALL
Geneva
Call is a new international NGO formed under Swiss law and acting through
executive offices in all continents. It calls for the adherence by armed groups,
known as non-state actors [NSAs], to humanitarian norms and provides a new
international mechanism for NSAs accountability for such commitments. The
incorporation of "Geneva" in the name of the organisation is a
reference to international humanitarian law, which is commonly referred to as
"Geneva Law".
The
creation of Geneva Call arose from the need to address the changing nature of
present-day armed conflicts, characterised in most cases by a clash between
State and non-state actors where the latter must also be considered responsible
with respect to humanitarian norms. It aims also to fill a gap in the
international legal regime whereby NSAs, by definition, cannot adhere
exclusively inter-state mechanisms.
With
this perspective, Geneva Call, which was launched
by leading members of the ICBL NSA Working Group in March 2000 on the
occasion of the pioneering conference "Engaging Non-State Actor in a
Landmine Ban", is concentrating its initial efforts on the landmine
problem.
Since
its launching in March 2000,
Geneva Call has been active on a number of fronts:
It
is conducting research and disseminating information related to armed groups and
landmines, in partnership with the
NSA data and documentation base hosted by international Alert, a conflict
resolution organisation based in London;
It
is lobbying regional and international bodies,
such as recently the European Parliament, to
take up the NSAs issue;
It
is working through a process of dialogue and education to
raise NSAs awareness of the landmine problem, to engage them in the mine ban process and
to monitor their commitments;
It
is developing cooperation with NGOs coalitions dealing
with armed groups on other war critical problems such as the
use of child soldiers and torture, thereby
contributing to the development of best practice to enhance NSAs compliance with
humanitarian norms.
The
work of campaigning for the adherence by NSAs to a total ban on AP mines is of
course a huge challenge whose moral, political and practical difficulties shiuld
not be under-estimated. However, it is of significance that an increasing number
of armed of the adverse impact of mines on their own communities and of the
global movement against landmines, have acknowledged the need to reconsider
their use of this weapon. Unilateral d........ ration or bilateral agreements
with States with clear references to mines have been made by NSAs in
Afghanistan, Colombia, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Yugoslavia/ Kosovo and
Morocco/ Western Sahara, among others. So far three of these groups, the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army [SPLM/A], the Moro Islamic Liberation Front [MILF]
and the Revolutionary Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade [RPA-ABB] of the Philippines,
have banned AP mines through the "Deed of Commitment".
Three
armed groups operating in the Philippines and Sudan have alerady signed the "Deed of Commitment
for Adherence to a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines and for Cooperation in Mine
Action". Others have stopped
using AP mines and indicated their willingness to consider renouncing this
weapon as will as supporting mine action activities in areas under their contr
FOR
MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
GENEVA
CALL
2, RUE PATRU
P.O. BOX 334
1211 GENEVA 4
SWITZERLAND
TEL. & FAX: +41 22 800
20 68
EMAIL: info@genevacall.org
WEBSITE:
http://www.genevacall.org
GENEVA
CALL CAN BE CONTACTED ALSO
THROUGH
ITS REGIONAL DIRECTORS:
IN
AFRICA, LARE OKUNGU
cosmos@bidii.com
IN
AMERICAS, EDUARDO MARINO
emarino@international-alert.org
IN
ASIA, SOLIMAN M. SANTOS JR.
gavroche@info.com.ph
IN
EUROPE , ELISABETH REUSSE-DECREY
ereusse@worldcom.ch