TREATY WORKING GROUP, Landmine Monitor Report 2005
Treaty Working Group
The ICBL’s Treaty Working Group consists of over 20 ICBL members, plus
staff. While the group does not meet formally, its members consult informally
and often draft common ICBL statements, discuss positions on ICBL issues of
concern and develop strategies and actions related to the Mine Ban Treaty. It
also addresses other mine-oriented international bodies and instruments, such as
the CCW Amended Protocol II, as well as national laws and measures. The TWG
chair is Human Rights Watch.
In 2004, the TWG continued to advocate for a “common
understanding” among States Parties on Articles 1, 2 and 3 in order to
prevent a weakening of the treaty through competing interpretations. In 2005,
it focused on identifying State Parties’ policies and practices that
diverged from what ICBL believes is the generally accepted interpretation of the
those articles. It also called on States Parties to comply with Article 9 of
the Mine Ban Treaty, stressing the need for them to create a legal basis for
full implementation of the
Convention.[1] The TWG also continued
to advocate for States Parties to provide, on-time, comprehensive reports as
part of their obligations under Article 7 of the treaty. It suggested that
States Parties use the voluntary Form J for reporting on victim assistance
matters, the intended purpose and actual use of mines retained under Article 3,
Claymore mines and steps taken to ensure they are used in command-detonated
mode, and foreign stockpiles of antipersonnel mines (as done by Tajikistan in
their initial Article 7 report).
Universalization
Mine Ban Treaty universalization efforts continued in 2004 and 2005, as ICBL
placed special emphasis on using the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World as a
deadline to encourage countries to join the treaty. Members of the TWG
participated in regular meetings of the treaty’s Universalization Contact
Group. They also represented ICBL in regional landmine conferences in
non-signatory countries, including in China, and visited target countries to
press for accession to the treaty, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia and
Libya (see Other Events, Field Missions and Advocacy Efforts above).
Throughout the year, ICBL has been in close contact with both the European
Commission and Ukrainian government to urge them to finalize an agreement under
which the EC would fund the destruction of the Ukrainian stockpile of
antipersonnel mines.
TWG members also spoke about the need to encourage universalization on
multiple occasions in regional and international fora, such as the United
Nations in Geneva and New York, the European Union, the Political Committee of
NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the Organization of American
States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Because of
its strong commitment to the ban on landmines, at both the political level and
as a major donor for mine action, survivor assistance and stockpile destruction,
ICBL asked the EU to play a special role during this year of the Nairobi Summit
and EU enlargement. The TWG also supported efforts taken to engage Non-State
Actors, as this is essential to obtaining truly global adherence to the
antipersonnel mine ban.
Under the guidance of the TWG and ICBL staff, campaigners and researchers in
countries including Azerbaijan, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Lebanon, Poland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan engaged in public education about the
treaty and contacted their governments and members of Parliament to press them
to ratify or accede to it. They also asked States Parties to influence these
governments, particularly EU members and their European parliamentarians.
ICBL Diplomatic Advisor Ambassador Satnam Singh actively promoted treaty
universalization on behalf of ICBL in trips to China, Jordan, Indonesia,
Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Singapore, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. He also worked
closely with high level diplomats while participating in regional conferences,
intersessional Standing Committee meetings, and the Nairobi Summit, and was in
regular contact with senior officials in India about a step by step approach to
its eventual accession to the treaty.
Since Landmine Monitor Report 2004 was published, four countries have
ratified or acceded to the treaty: Ethiopia, Latvia, Bhutan and Vanuatu, in that
order. Ukraine’s parliament has ratified the convention, but it has not
yet deposited its instrument with the United Nations. There was encouraging
progress toward ratification or accession to the Mine Ban Treaty in more than 15
other countries, including Indonesia, Iraq, Micronesia, Mongolia, Poland,
Somalia and several Gulf states.
Intersessional Work
In close coordination with ICBL staff, the TWG chair continued to organize
ICBL participation in two intersessional committees, the Standing Committees on
General Status and Operation of the Convention and on Stockpile Destruction.
The ICBL played a prominent role in these SCs, providing relevant information,
clearly stating NGO positions and concerns, and recommending specific actions
that the SCs and participating States Parties could carry out.
General Status: The TWG chair and ICBL staff closely worked with SC
co-chairs and co-rapporteurs to ensure that key items of interest to the ICBL
were discussed in this SC’s meetings, especially those including Article 1
(interpretation of “assist”), Article 2 (definitions, particularly
antivehicle mines with anti-handling devices and sensitive fuzes), Article 3
(mines retained for training), Article 7 (transparency reporting), Article 8
(compliance), and Article 9 (national implementation measures). The chair spoke
and issued Landmine Monitor fact sheets on Articles 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 at the 2005
meeting. Another TWG member made a presentation to the SC on mines with
sensitive fuzes, and an ICBL staff member spoke about universalization during
the June 2005 meeting.
Stockpile Destruction: The TWG chair presented a global overview of
stockpiles and stockpile destruction efforts at both SC meetings at the
invitation of the SC co-chairs, a standard practice since 1999. Landmine
Monitor also issued fact sheets on stockpile destruction progress and challenges
in 2004.
Nairobi Summit
During the preparations for the Nairobi Summit, the TWG and ICBL staff
strongly encouraged States Parties to reach a common understanding on Articles
1, 2 and 3 by the end of the summit, reminding States Parties that an absence of
clarity on these matters risked undermining treaty implementation in general.
The TWG chair, together with the ICRC, urged States Parties to use a Dutch
non-paper on Articles 1, 2 and 3 as the basis for discussions on such an
agreement. While a common understanding was not reached by Nairobi, Action #55
of the Nairobi Plan does call for states to continue to share their views and
experiences on Articles 1, 2 and 3 “to continue to promote effective and
consistent application of these provisions.” Argentina and Chile made a
proposal for expanded reporting related to Article 3, in keeping with the
ICBL’s recommendations.
Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW)
Several ICBL members, including the TWG chair, participated in CCW meetings
on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and Mines Other Than Anti-Personnel Mines
(MOTAPM) during 2004 and 2005, as well as the Sixth Annual Conference of the
States Parties to Amended Protocol II on 17 November 2004. The ICBL has stated
its view that the CCW is a useful international instrument for addressing
humanitarian and conventional weapons issues if its work is efficiently
conducted and accompanied by political will. On 8 August 2005, the ICBL
addressed the Group of Governmental Experts on MOTAPMs, reminding States Parties
to the CCW that those countries that were also party to the Mine Ban Treaty were
already prohibited from using MOTAPMs with sensitive fuzes or antihandling
devices because they were covered under the Mine Ban Treaty definition of
“antipersonnel” mines.
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