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States Recommit to Mine-Free 2025 at Oslo Review Conference

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World
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ICBL
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(Oslo, 30 November 2019) – Ninety-two States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty adopted 50 action points to ensure mine clearance and other treaty obligations are met by 2025, during the closing of the Fourth Review Conference on a Mine Free World yesterday in Oslo, Norway. The meeting drew more than 700 participants, including 12 countries not party to the Treaty and some 30 international and non-governmental organizations. The ICBL delegation included 180 people.

Civil society and state collaboration, at the core of the Mine Ban Treaty, was widely cited throughout the week by States Parties, including the Norwegian Presidency, as an important tool for reaching a mine-free 2025.

States repeatedly noted the immense success of the Treaty in helping to eliminate the suffering caused by landmines. Many states, including Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, specifically declared their intent to finish the job of mine clearance by 2025 – the target set by States Parties at the Maputo Review Conference in 2014.

At least one States Party, Bangladesh, specifically condemned the recent landmine use by non-state party Myanmar. Myanmar is identified by the Landmine Monitor 2019 report as the only state to use the weapon in the past year.

The continued failure by Greece and Ukraine to complete stockpile destruction obligations eleven and nine years, respectively, after their deadlines stood in contrast to the strong support shown by States for the global ban norm and for the 2025 mine-free goals.

“Mine-free does not mean victim-free, when we achieve our ambitious goal of a mine-free 2025, victims will remain a core pillar of the Convention”, said ICBL Ambassador and survivor Margaret Arach Orech. “States need to ensure national action plans actually reach survivors and that services are adequate, accessible, and sustainable. Working together we can provide effective and better services for all those covered by the Oslo Action Plan”, she said.

Thirty-two young women from 18 countries participated in the Review Conference this week as part of the ICBL delegation and joined the Convention Presidency in the closing ceremony.

“All of us here are proof of the strong global commitment to a mine-free world; no matter what language you speak or which country you come from,” they said in their joint address. “Our generation is ready to help finish the job of ridding the world of landmines, and we expect that you, as representatives of more than 100 countries will take all efforts necessary to reach this goal by 2025”.

During the closing day of the conference the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway handed over the Convention Presidency to Sudan.

The main outcome documents from the Conference were the Oslo Action Plan and the Oslo Political Declaration. The strong and comprehensive Action Plan contains 50 points that will guide the work of States Parties for the next five years.

“We need to finish the clearance job by 2025 and end new casualties from this weapon by 2025,” said ICBL Director, Hector Guerra. “The Oslo action plan can make this a reality, through strong political commitment and adequate funding. This is the time for states to show their firm commitment to a mine-free world,” he said.

ENDS

Links:

ICBL - www.icbl.org
Mine Ban Treaty - www.apminebanconvention.org
Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor Twitter - twitter.com/MineMonitor
ICBL Twitter - twitter.com/minefreeworld
ICBL Facebook - www.facebook.com/pg/minefreeworld/ ICBL Flickr - http://bit.ly/OsloRevConFlickr
ICBL YouTube - http://bit.ly/ICBLosloVideo
Landmine Monitor 2019 landing page, including new maps - http://bit.ly/LMM19report
Monitor factsheets and infographics - http://bit.ly/LMMfacts

For more information, or to schedule an interview, contact:

• Jared Bloch, Advocacy and Communications Manager, (CET), Mobile/WhatsApp +41 (0) 78-683-4407 or email media@icblcmc.org