Belgium

The Kingdom of Belgium signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 4 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Production of antipersonnel mines ceased in 1990 and was banned in 1995. Transfer was banned in 1993. In 1995, Belgium became the first country in the world to pass domestic legislation comprehensively banning antipersonnel mines, and subsequently amended this legislation to ensure full compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty. On 30 April 2012, Belgium submitted its 14^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.

Belgium destroyed its stockpile of approximately 433,441 antipersonnel mines in September 1997.[1] By the end of 2011, Belgium retained 3,041 antipersonnel mines for training.[2]

Belgium served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committees on the General Status and Operation of the Convention (1999–2001; 2004–2006), Mine Clearance (2001–2003), and Victim Assistance (2007–2009) and was president of the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in 2002.

Belgium initiated and continued to coordinate the Article 7 Contact Group in 2011 and 2012. Since June 2011, Belgium also served as coordinator of the Universalization Contact Group, taking over from Canada.

At the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November-December 2011 and the intersessional meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2012, Belgium reported on progress made to promote the universality of the treaty, including in particular in Cambodia and Southeast Asia, Libya, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands; for this report, Belgium worked in cooperation with Prince Mired of Jordan, Ambassador Gazmend Turdiu of Albania (president of the Tenth Meeting of States Parties), the ICRC, and campaigners from the ICBL. Belgium reaffirmed that it used all opportunities to actively inform states not parties of the importance of joining the convention.[3]

Belgium also called attention to the importance of declarations condemning any use of antipersonnel mines, such as the two instances of use by states not party in 2011.[4] Belgium emphasized that “[u]sing landmines today is subject to immediate broad public condemnation. Countries outside of the Convention are becoming aware of the consequences of acting against an almost universal instrument of international humanitarian law.” Belgium further urged that “[w]e should seize every opportunity, for instance by calling upon newly installed governments to correct a negative public image that may have resulted from action undertaken under the previous regimes.”[5]

Belgium has continued in its national capacity to promote the universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. In February 2012, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders, stated in parliament that general instructions had been issued for all Belgian diplomatic posts worldwide, including in producer countries Russia, China, and the United States, to support bilateral diplomacy and (where appropriate) to participate in any promotion of the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6] In 2011 through the first half of 2012, Belgium promoted the treaties in the frameworks of the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Working Party on Global Disarmament and Arms Control within the European Union (CODUN), and through regional and bilateral initiatives.[7] 

At both the meetings of States Parties and the intersessional meetings, Belgium reported back on the work of the Article 7 Contact Group and on the status of submissions of transparency reports. At the intersessional meetings, Belgium noted with disappointment that as of 20 May 2012, only 61 out of 157 States Parties – or 38.8% – had submitted their annual reports, the lowest number since the treaty’s entry into force.[8]

In 2011 and 2012, Belgian civil society has been continuing its active support for the Mine Ban Treaty and strengthening its efforts on implementation, in particular with regards to victim assistance, disinvestment, funding, and transit of illegal weapons.[9]

Belgium is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Belgium has no known mined areas, though mines and unexploded ordnance from World War I and World War II are still found occasionally.