Fatima Khan's Blog: Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid on the International Day for Mine Awareness on 4 April

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid on the International Day for Mine Awareness on 4 April

Bärbel Kofler, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, issued the following statement to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action (4 April):

Zusatzinformationen

Landmines remain a lethal threat to the people in those countries in which they have been employed as an instrument of war. Even years after a war or armed conflict has ended, landmines still cause serious and lasting injuries and claim lives. The German Government has noted with concern reports that anti‑personnel mines have been used in Ukraine, Syria and other countries, and calls on those responsible to refrain from using anti‑personnel mines.

The German Government will not let up in its efforts to support affected countries by clearing the ground of landmines and other explosive remnants of war and by assisting the victims. Last year, the German Government spent over €13.6 million to this end.

The German Government was one of the first governments to sign the Ottawa Convention on the universal prohibition of anti‑personnel mines. We firmly advocate the accession of all countries to this important instrument of international humanitarian law, with a view to ensuring that anti‑personnel mines may never again be used anywhere in the world. Our campaign has already achieved great things. Some 162 states have already signed up to the Ottawa Convention.

Background information:

As demonstrated by the conventions on anti‑personnel mines (Ottawa Convention, 1997) and cluster munitions (Oslo Convention, 2008), results can be achieved at the international level. The German Government worked intensively on these important conventions, which represent a key further development of international humanitarian law. Germany had destroyed all of its stocks of anti‑personnel mines by 1997, and last year completed the destruction of its remaining cluster munitions – roughly three years before the deadline set by the Convention. In addition, the German Government has for several years been working towards the adoption of binding rules restricting the use of anti‑vehicle mines under the auspices of the UN Conventional Weapons Convention. The aim is to ensure that these can be detected with traditional demining equipment and to limit their active life so that they do not present a danger to the civilian population.

According to the Landmine Monitor 2015, a publication produced by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines with financial support from the Federal Foreign Office, anti‑personnel mines were used last year by the armed forces in Myanmar, North Korea and Syria, while mines and improvised explosive devices were used by illegal armed groups in Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine and Yemen. The German Government is one of the world’s leading donors to humanitarian mine and ordnance clearance and victim assistance. In 2015 it provided over €13.6 million for such projects in 15 different countries.