Key developments
since March 1999: Mexico has served as co-chair of the Mine Ban
Treaty’s Standing Committee of Experts on Victim Assistance.
Mine Ban Policy
A leader in the movement to ban AP mines, Mexico
signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 9 June 1998,
the seventeenth country to do so.
Mexico has not enacted separate implementation legislation for the Mine Ban
Treaty. Once the treaty was promulgated and published in the Official Federal
Gazette on 21 August 1998, it became fully enforceable domestic
law.[1] In most cases,
international agreements in Mexico are self-executing. In the national
implementation measures section of Mexico’s Article 7 transparency report,
the steps described above are included. The treaty is considered as a Supreme
Law in all the territory according to Article 133 of the Politic Constitution of
the United Mexican States.
The first Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report was submitted on 24 September
1999, in Spanish, covering the period 1998 and 1999. Mexico submitted its second
Article 7 report on 7 February 2000, covering the period 1999 and 2000. It
contained no new information.
Mexico voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54 B supporting
the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999, as it had for similar resolutions in 1997
and 1998.
Mexico attended the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May 1999. In
a statement to the plenary, Mexican Ambassador Carmen Moreno said, “The
elimination of antipersonnel landmines should be a priority for the
international community at the commencement of the twenty-first
century.”[2]
Mexico has participated extensively in the intersessional meetings of the
treaty in Geneva and co-chaired the Standing Committee of Experts on Victim
Assistance, Socio-Economic Integration and Mine Awareness, along with
Switzerland.
Mexico is a state party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and the
original Protocol II on landmines. It has not ratified Amended Protocol II as
it views it as being surpassed by the Mine Ban Treaty and too limited in
comparison with the ban
treaty.[3] Mexico attended as an
observer the December 1999 First Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended
Protocol II, but did not make a statement.
While Mexico is a member of the Conference on Disarmament it does not
support, and in some instances has blocked, any effort to launch negotiations on
a transfer ban in this forum.[4]
Mexican officials have stated their opposition to any measures that might
undermine the comprehensive ban embodied in the Mine Ban Treaty.
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use
Mexico does not produce, transfer, stockpile or use
AP mines.[5] In a December 1999
response to Landmine Monitor, the Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) Director
for the United Nations System, Minister Luis Alfonso De Alba, stated that Mexico
is in compliance with all provisions of the Mine Ban
Treaty.[6] When asked to
provide information on any AP mines retained for training, as permitted under
Article 3 of the treaty, a Mexican officer from SRE indicated that the
declaration of Mexico as a landmine-free territory should be interpreted in a
broad sense, including in regard to Article 3.
Landmine Monitor has found no evidence of use of AP mines in Mexico,
including by non-state actors.
Mine Action
Mexico has stated that it is
“mine-free” on a number of occasions, including through its Article
7 reports. There are no known mine casualties in Mexico. According Minister
Luis Alfonso De Alba, “Mexico was the main promoter of the initiative
which ended with the signature of the ‘Memorandum of Understanding on a
Joint-Program for Rehabilitation of Victims of Landmines in Central
America,’ between Mexico, Canada and the Pan-American Health
Organization” at the Regional Seminar on Antipersonnel Landmines in
January 1999.”[7]
Mexico has not contributed to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in
Mine Clearance, and is not known to have contributed bilaterally to mine
clearance operations in affected nations.
Mexico’s Ambassador Antonio de Icaza co-chaired with Switzerland the
first meeting of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Standing Committee of Experts on
Victim Assistance, Socio-Economic Integration and Mine Awareness, held in Geneva
in September 1999. The second meeting was held in March 2000 in
Geneva.
[1] Diario Oficial de la Federación,
21 August 1998, p. 2-9. [2] Statement by
Ambassador Carmen Moreno to the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban
Treaty, Maputo, 3 May 1999, p. 5. [3]
Telephone interview with Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Mexico City,
Mexico, 23 March 1999. [4] See for
example, “Mexico blocks conclave on world land-mine ban,” Reuters
(Geneva), 12 June 1997. [5] See for
example, "Declaración de Principios del Gobierno de Mexico sobre la
Producción, Exportación y Uso de Minas Terrestres Antipersonales."
Misión Permante de Mexico ante la OEA. CP02954.S, Mexico, D.F. a 7 de
Febrero de 1997. [6] Letter from
Minister Luis Alfonso De Alba, General Director for the United Nations, Mexican
Foreign Relations Secretariat, to Landmine Monitor Researcher, Document Number:
DNU-1205379, 9 December 1999, p. 1. [7]
Ibid., p. 3.