This
is the executive summary of 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Additional organizations and individuals provided research coordination for this
third report.
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. The report and its executive
summary were printed during August and presented to the Third Meeting of States
Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in Managua, Nicaragua in September
2001.
Landmine Monitor thanks the donors to the initiative and this third
annual report. Landmine Monitor Report 2001 reflects the ICBL’s
views and Landmine Monitor’s donors are in no way responsible for, and do
not necessarily endorse, the material contained in the report. It was only
possible to carry out this work with the aid of grants from:
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