Italy
Mine Ban Policy
The Italian Republic signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 23 April 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 October 1999. Export of antipersonnel mines ceased in 1993 and a moratorium on production and export was declared in 1994. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was enacted on 29 October 1997. With amendments, this was used for implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty when the ratification legislation was approved on 26 March 1999.
In 2012, Italy submitted its 13th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report. Italy voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolution 66/29 on antipersonnel mines on 2 December 2011.
Italy completed destruction of its stockpile of 6,529,811 antipersonnel mines on 20 November 2002, well in advance of its 1 October 2003 deadline mandated by the treaty.[1] Italy initially retained 811 mines for training and development purposes; this number was reduced to 643 by May 2012.[2] During the 2012 intersessional meetings, Italy stated that “…the number of personnel trained in mine detection, clearance and destruction remains the main indicator of a correct (or inaccurate) compliance with…article 3.”[3]
Italy attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011 and the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012.
Italy is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Campaigners in Italy participated in the Lend Your Leg global action in March-April 2012 by sending 900 Lend Your Leg postcards to all members of parliament. Twenty ministers of parliament from the Chamber of Deputies subsequently supported this campaign action.[4]
Italy has no known mined areas, though unexploded ordnance from World War I and World War II is still found occasionally.
[1] Several different totals have been given for Italy’s final stockpile quantity over the previous decade: 7,123,672 (6,529,811 warfare mines, 593,861 practice mines) in Registro delle Mine, Terrestrial Armaments General Directorate, Ministry of Defense, 10 October 2003, p. 5; 7,122,811 (6,529,811 warfare mines, 593,000 practice mines) in “Destruction of the Italian Antipersonnel Mine Stockpile,” Ministry of Defense, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 6 February 2003; 7,122,739 (6,529,838 warfare mines, 592,901 practice mines) in Article 7 Report, Form B, 2 May 2002; 7,117,126 (6,529,809 warfare mines and 587,317 practice mines) in Article 7 Report, Form B, 29 March 2000. The main types of active mine were: PMC (2,068,193), AUPS (1,738,781), VAR 40 (1,420,636), MAUS-1 (623,755), Valmara 69 (410,027), Mk 2 (216,546), KB44 (21,840), MUSPA (10,160), MIFF (6,400), MUSA (1,760), VS-50 (180), VS-JAP (160) and Claymore (86). There were also large quantities described as “out of order.”
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 01 January 2011 to 31 December 2011), Form D.
[3] Statement of Italy, Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings, Geneva, 25 May 2012, www.apminebanconvention.org/intersessional-work-programme/may-2012/general-status-and-operation-of-the-convention/statements/?eID=dam_frontend_push&docID=14456.
[4] ICBL, “ICBL 2012 Global Action Report Lend Your Leg (LYL), 1st March – 4th April 2012,” undated, pp. 21-22, http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/LYL-2012-Report.