Four out of five victims of anti-personnel mines continue to be civilians, over 40 percent of them children. On the occasion of International Mine Awareness Day on 4 April, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg calls on all states who have not signed the Convention against Anti-Personnel Mines to join this international norm.
We will only be able to overcome new challenges, such as the use of improvised mines by non-state actors, together,
emphasises the Foreign Minister.
Even years after the end of a conflict, death is lurking in the earth, for these insidious weapons can become a deadly danger at any time. The wounds to the body and soul of survivors are life-changing. Areas where mines are suspected cannot be cultivated,
says Alexander Schallenberg.
The grave humanitarian consequences of these unacceptable weapons led to the adoption of the Convention against Anti-Personnel Mines 24 years ago, which includes a ban on the possession and use of mines, the obligation to demine and to provide assistance for victims.
Austria played a decisive role in establishing the so-called Ottawa Convention. Today, the Convention has 164 signatory states. Almost 80 per cent of all states are working within this framework towards the common goal of a mine-free world. Austria makes concrete contributions to this end through financial and political support.
Since 2000, Austria has provided more than 34 million euros for mine action activities and supported demining and victim assistance projects in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Mozambique, Syria and Ukraine, among others.
The creation and implementation of the Convention is based on close cooperation between states, international organisations and global and local civil society. “It is an outstanding success story of a public-private partnership. The Convention proves how productive goal-oriented multilateral cooperation can be and what synergies it can have”, emphasises Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
The “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction” was signed in Ottawa on 3 December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999. For the first time, this created a legally binding instrument for disarmament that went beyond conventional restrictions on weapons and methods of combat and placed an explicit emphasis on protection and assistance for civilians and victims. Austria was among the initiators who drafted the convention in close cooperation with representatives of civil society and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
