This is the third annual report of the
Landmine Monitor, 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. Landmine Monitor marks 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 2001: Toward a Mine-Free
World is the third such annual report. The first report was released in May
1999 at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo,
Mozambique while the second report was released in September 2000 at the Second
Meeting of States Parties in Geneva, Switzerland. To prepare this third report,
Landmine Monitor had 122 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.
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 2001 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 previous years, 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 2001 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 (Belgium), 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 Report 2001
were awarded in September 2000. The global research network met in ten regional
meetings between October 2000 and January 2001 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 January and February 2001 draft research reports
were submitted to the Landmine Monitor research coordinators for review and
comment. On 8-9 March 2001 the members of the research network met a second time
in Washington, D.C. to present their final reports, discuss their main findings
through a peer review process and evaluate the initiative to date. Throughout
May, June and July the Landmine Monitor’s team of 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 2001 also includes
appendices with reports from major actors in the mine ban movement, such as UN
agencies and the ICRC. This report was printed during August and presented to
the Third Meeting of States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in Managua,
Nicaragua in September 2001.