States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Antipersonnel Landmines resolved at its 3rd Review Conference (Maputo, June 2014) to do their utmost to ensure that the provisions of this instrument are fully realized by 2025.
Significant progress has been made in the implementation of the Convention since it opened for signature on December 4, 1997.
To date, 162 States have joined the Convention, thereby giving up antipersonnel landmines. The use these weapons is today a fairly rare phenomenon, and new cases of use are few and far between.
More than 51 million antipersonnel landmines have been destroyed, the Convention requiring that States Parties destroy their stocks of mines. 30 States whose territory was affected by landmines have completed demining efforts, and the cleared zones have been returned to civilian use. Above all, the number of new victims has been significantly reduced, and divided more than fourfold in twenty years.
However, important challenges remain to be met.
Not all States are yet party to the Convention, including important military powers. New cases of use have been reported in the past three years. Moreover, a significant number of States have land still contaminated by anti-personnel landmines and that remain to be cleared, including 32 States parties to the Convention. And this instrument is confronted by the increased use of improvised explosive devices whose characteristics are similar to anti-personnel landmines, a development that has contributed to the upsurge in new victims these past few years.
Meeting these challenges and ensuring that the 2025 objective is realized will require a continued and sustained commitment by the States Parties to the Convention.
