France

The French Republic signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 23 July 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. National implementing legislation, which includes penal sanctions, was enacted on 8 July 1998. On 30 April 2012, France submitted its 14^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.

In the past, France produced, exported, and used antipersonnel mines. France completed destruction of its stockpile of 1,397,547 antipersonnel mines on 20 December 1999, well in advance of its 1 March 2003 treaty-mandated deadline. France initially retained 4,539 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes, but this number was reduced to 3,941 by the end of 2011.[1] France served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Technologies for Mine Action (1999–2000), and as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance (2001–2003).

France attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in November–December 2011 and the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012. At both meetings, France reaffirmed its “unwavering” commitment to the treaty’s universalization and gave updates on its efforts, in cooperation with Handicap International, to promote the treaty and demarche states not party.[2]

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

On 28 May 2008, in advance of its 1 March 2009 mine clearance deadline, France declared it had successfully completed clearance of a mined area around an ammunition storage area near La Doudah, Djibouti. France has no known mined areas, but mines and unexploded ordnance from World War I and World War II are occasionally found.