About Landmine Monitor, Landmine Monitor Report 2000
About Landmine Monitor
Landmine Monitor is an unprecedented initiative by
the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) to monitor implementation of
and compliance with the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and more generally to assess the
efforts of the international community to resolve the landmines crisis. It is
the first time that non-governmental organizations are coming together in a
coordinated, systematic and sustained way to monitor a humanitarian law or
disarmament treaty, and to regularly document progress and problems.
The main elements of the Landmine Monitor system are a global reporting
network, a central database, and an annual report. Landmine Monitor Report
2000: Toward a Mine-Free World is the second such annual report. The first
annual report was released in May 1999 at the First Meeting of States Parties to
the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo, Mozambique. To prepare this report, Landmine
Monitor had 115 researchers from 95 countries gathering information. The report
is largely based on in-country research, collected by in-country researchers.
Landmine Monitor has utilized the ICBL campaigning network, but has also drawn
in other elements of civil society to help monitor and report, including
journalists, academics and research institutions.
It should be understood that Landmine Monitor is not a technical verification
system or a formal inspection regime. It is an effort by civil society to hold
governments accountable to the obligations that they have taken on with regard
to antipersonnel mines; this is done through extensive collection, analysis and
distribution of information that is publicly available. Though in some cases it
does entail investigative missions, Landmine Monitor is not designed to send
researchers into harm’s way and does not include hot war-zone reporting.
Landmine Monitor is meant to complement the States Parties reporting required
under Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty. It was created in the spirit of Article
7 and reflects the shared view that transparency and cooperation are essential
elements to the successful elimination of antipersonnel mines. But it is also a
recognition that there is a need for independent reporting and evaluation.
Landmine Monitor and its annual report aim to promote and facilitate
discussion on mine-related issues, and to seek clarifications, in order to help
reach the goal of a mine-free world. Landmine Monitor works in good faith to
provide factual information about issues it is monitoring, in order to benefit
the international community as a whole. It seeks to be critical but constructive
in its analysis.
Landmine Monitor Report 2000 contains information on every country of
the world with respect to landmine ban policy, use, production, transfer,
stockpiling, mine clearance, mine awareness, and survivor assistance. Thus, the
Monitor does not only report on States Parties and their treaty obligations, it
also looks at signatory states and non-signatories as well. All
countries—as well as information on key players in mine action and victim
assistance in the mine-affected countries—are included in this report in
the belief it will provide an important means to gauge global effectiveness on
mine action and banning the weapon.
As was the case in our first year, Landmine Monitor acknowledges that this
ambitious report has its shortcomings. It is to be viewed as a work in
progress, a system that will be continuously updated, corrected and improved.
We welcome comments, clarifications, and corrections from governments and
others, in the spirit of dialogue and in the search for accurate and reliable
information on a difficult subject.
Landmine Monitor 2000 Process
In June 1998, the ICBL formally agreed to create
Landmine Monitor as an ICBL initiative. A Core Group was established to develop
and coordinate the Landmine Monitor system. The Core Group consists of Human
Rights Watch, Handicap International, Kenya Coalition Against Landmines, Mines
Action Canada, and Norwegian People’s Aid. Overall responsibility for, and
decision-making on, the Landmine Monitor system rests with the Core Group.
Research grants for Landmine Monitor 2000 were awarded in September 1999.
The global research network met in Brussels, Belgium 31 January-2 February 2000
to discuss initial findings, exchange information, assess what research and data
gathering had already taken place, identify gaps, and ensure common research
methods and reporting mechanisms for the Monitor. In mid-March draft research
reports were submitted to the Landmine Monitor Core Group for review and
comment. On 15-17 May the members of the research network met again in
Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands to present their final reports and discuss
their main findings through a peer review process. Throughout May, June and July
the Core Group regional and thematic coordinators verified sources and edited
country reports, with a team at Human Rights Watch taking responsibility for
final fact-checking, editing and assembly of the entire report. Landmine
Monitor Report 2000 also includes appendices with reports from major actors
in the mine ban movement, such as key governments, UN agencies and the ICRC.
This report was printed during August and presented to the Second Meeting of
States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva, Switzerland in September
2000.