LM Report 2000

Full Report   Executive Summary   Key Findings   Key Developments   Translated Country Reports

ANDORRA

Andorra signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, and deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations on 29 June 1998. According to Andorra's Ambassador to the UN, Juli Minoves, the treaty is a good and necessary instrument to completely ban antipersonnel mines in the near future, and he insists that it should be signed and ratified as soon as possible by those governments that have not yet done so.^[1]

Andorra has not passed on any implementation legislation apart from the ratification instrument. Prior to the Mine Ban Treaty, Andorra did not have any domestic legislation specifically on mines, but it did have a decree on arms, dated 3 July 1989. Chapter 1, section 3, article 2 of the decree prohibits the use of antipersonnel mines in Andorran territory.

Andorra has not submitted its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report to the United Nations, which was due 27 August 1999. The reason given is that Andorra lacks the administrative resources to service all its increasing international commitments. This is also given as the reason why Andorra was not able to attend the First Meeting of State Parties in Mozambique in May 1999 or attend the subsequent meetings of the Standing Committees of Experts in Geneva. However, Ambassador Minoves states that the Article 7 report will be available shortly, and Andorra has recently opened a diplomatic chapter in Geneva.

Andorra voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B in December 1999 in support of the Mine Ban Treaty. Andorra has made numerous public statements promoting the treaty. Ambassador Minoves considers “an outrage the various new deployments, and allegations of new deployments being made of APMs around the world.”

Andorra has not yet ratified the Convention on Conventional Weapons, or the Amended Protocol II on mines, but will shortly do so. It is in favor of negotiating a ban on mine transfers in the Conference on Disarmament.

Andorra has not produced, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines, and its territory is not mine-affected. Andorra does not have any military forces.

Although Andorra is not a big country, it has contributed to humanitarian action programs, especially to the UN Trust Fund (US$ 10,000 in 1998, US$ 10,500 in 1999, with US$ 20,000 budgeted for 2000). The government is currently studying the possibility of funding training programs for deminers.

[1] Telephone interview and correspondence with Ambassador Juli Minoves, 14 January 2000. All information cited comes from this source.