Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner to
Canada Robert Sabga signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997. At the
signing ceremony, he said, “After signature, our countries are faced with
the real challenge of implementation of the measures outlined in the Convention.
This Conference can only be deemed successful when all countries participating
in the process to this point which are engaged in the production, use and/or
transfer of antipersonnel mines cease these operations and ensure no further
engagement through vigorous enactment of national
legislation.”[1]
Trinidad and Tobago ratified the treaty on 27 April 1998, the eleventh
country to do so. It has not yet enacted national implementation legislation.
Trinidad and Tobago has never produced, imported, stockpiled, or used
antipersonnel landmines and it is not
mine-affected.[2] Trinidad and
Tobago participated in the Ottawa Process by endorsing the Brussels Declaration,
voting in favor of the 1996 and 1997 UN General Assembly resolutions, supporting
the CARICOM/CENTAM declaration and supporting, by consensus, key OAS General
Assembly resolutions.
[1]Statement to the Signing
Ceremony by His Excellency Robert Sabga, Trinidad and Tobago’s High
Commissioner to Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 2-4 December 1997.
[2]Response to the Landmine
Monitor questionnaire completed by the Legal and Marine Affairs Division of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Trinidad and Tobago, 26 February
1999.