About Us
Our Research Products
Iraq
Mine Ban Policy
Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty
|
Mine Ban Treaty status |
State Party |
|
National implementation measures |
Has not drafted new implementation measures |
|
Transparency reporting |
Submitted in April 2011 |
|
Key developments |
Iraq destroyed a stockpile of 690 antipersonnel mines in the northern region |
Policy
The Republic of Iraq acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 15 August 2007, becoming a State Party on 1 February 2008.[1]
Iraq has not indicated if national implementation legislation to enforce the treaty’s prohibitions domestically is being pursued or if existing laws are considered adequate.[2]
In April 2011, Iraq submitted its fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report covering calendar year 2010.
Iraq hosted a conference on the national strategy for mine action in coordination with donor countries in Baghdad in October 2010. Iraq attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010. It also participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings held in Geneva in June 2011.
Iraq is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, stockpiling, and destruction
Iraq produced antipersonnel mines in the past, including in the period leading up to the 2003 conflict. All mine production facilities were apparently destroyed in the Coalition bombing campaign in 2003.[3] Iraq reported that it has no intention to reconstruct its production capacity.[4]
For the second year in a row, the Monitor could not find any confirmed reports of new use of antipersonnel mines by government, Coalition, or insurgency forces. Civilians continued to be killed by mines laid in previous years. No allegations of any mine transfers from Iraq have surfaced since the 1990s.
Iraq’s treaty deadline for destruction of all stockpiled antipersonnel mines is 1 February 2012.[5] In June 2011, Iraq stated that it destroyed 645 out of 690 antipersonnel mines that had been stockpiled in the Kurdistan region, retaining 45 mines for training purposes.[6]
In previous Monitor reports, substantial but decreasing numbers of antipersonnel mines were recovered by foreign and Iraqi forces from caches. The Monitor has not found any information regarding seizures during the current reporting period. The Iraqi government has not previously reported on recovered mines or their destruction in its Article 7 reports. The jurisdiction over and arrangements for antipersonnel mines collected by multinational forces is not clear.
[1] Since 2004, government representatives indicated on many occasions that Iraq was favorably inclined toward the Mine Ban Treaty. See Landmine Monitor Report 2007, p. 436.
[2] Iraq has only reported on the legal framework for mine action. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form A.
[3] Interview with Mowafak Ayoub, Director, Disarmament Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Geneva, 10 February 2004. Iraqi and United States (US) sources requesting anonymity indicated that the Aloa’oa’a and Hutten factories in Alexandria and the Aloudisie factory in Al Youssfiz were destroyed. See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 886–887, for details on previous production. In 2005, the Monitor removed Iraq from its list of countries producing antipersonnel mines or reserving the right to produce them, following the destruction of Iraq’s production facilities and the government’s statements in support of banning antipersonnel mines.
[4] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form E, 31 July 2008. The report also states: “The PMN Anti-Personnel mine was produced in this factory. Shortly before the war of 2003 however, a defect in these mines resulted in restricting the use of these mines. As far as can be determined, the stocks of these mines in military ammunition dumps have been dealt with by the US Corps of Military Engineering Conventional Munitions Destruction Project. Iraq also developed the capacity to produce Valmara 69 mines but apparently this capacity was never used to physically produce Valmara mines.”
[5] The Monitor has previously noted that Iraq was believed to stockpile, at some point, mines manufactured by Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Romania, Singapore, the former Soviet Union, and the US, in addition to Iraqi-manufactured mines.
[6] Statement of Iraq, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 June 2011.
Send us your feedback on this profile
Send the Monitor your feedback by filling out this form. Responses will be channeled to editors, but will not be available online. Click if you would like to send an attachment. If you are using webmail, send attachments to .