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ABOUT LANDMINE MONITOR, Landmine Monitor Report 2001
 
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ABOUT LANDMINE MONITOR

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.