Landmine Facts
Posted under Our Achievements, |
There are about 60 - 70 million landmines in more than 90 countries, killing or injuring a civilian every 30 minutes, about 18,000 people a year. The wide range of these statistics reflects the difficulty of arriving at reliable numbers.
We won't know how many landmines are in the ground until we've actually found them and many landmine casualties are not reported because they happen in remote areas where health centres don't even find out about them.
More relevant than the number of mines is the impact that these mines have on communities and entire countries.
This impact goes far beyond physical injury and death - it includes virtually every aspect of life and prevents mine-affected communities from fully recovering after armed conflicts have ended.
Minefield clearance makes land safe for future generations. The safe removal of landmines ensures that their terrible direct and indirect impact never recurs.
One mine - or even the suspicion of a mine - makes a minefield.
It means that people will not be able to use the land to grow food, to return to and rebuild their homes, or access clean water and health centres. They will live in constant fear that they may be blown up at their next step.
Children are particularly at risk because they are curious and can easily stray into mined areas when they're playing, but also because in many of these countries, they fulfil tasks that take them into mined areas, such as tending to animals, fetching water or collecting firewood.
About one third of all landmine casualties are children. Many more lose parents or other family members and suddenly find themselves responsible for providing for the family.
In addition, landmines hinder infrastructure and economic development by increasing a country's dependency on international aid, block the delivery of relief goods to areas most in need, prevent the return of refugees and hamper the process of peace and reconciliation.
It is not just landmines that are causing these problems – countless pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO), which are munitions that did not explode upon impact, such as grenades, mortars and cluster bomblets, have the same effect.
For all these reasons, many more people than the 10,000 to 19,000 killed and injured every year are seriously affected by landmines.
The UK has been at the forefront of international initiative to ban land mines.
Around 1,000 to 2,000 people are killed or maimed by landmines every month- usually civilians.
An estimated 100 million landmines are lying in wait somewhere in the world. 5-10 million landmines are produced every year.
The mine ban treaty (also known as Ottawa Convention) was signed in December 1997 by 122 nations in Ottawa, Canada.
The treaty bans the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines and became binding international law on 1 March 1999, faster than any other international treaty in history.
The treaty’s achievements so far: established an international norm stigmatising the use of landmines, led to a virtual stop of international trade in landmines, more than 2/3 of all mine-producing countries have stopped production, 40 million stockpiled landmines have been destroyed.
Ultimately the treaty will prevent new mines from going into the ground.
Within the next few years there should be an outright ban on the manufacture of AP landmines in the "western world".
The British government has been undermining steps to restrain landmine production with international law by stressing that there is a new type of landmine around with self-destruct technology.
The introduction of self-destruct landmines onto the agenda has provided the government with a useful distraction in international negotiation, while meanwhile the arms industry can exploit the opportunity to develop more lethal technology in the name of progress.
The 1980 UN Inhumane weapons convention says that an AP is “a mine primarily designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person and that will incapacitate, injure or kill one or more persons”. It was the British government who pushed for the insertion of the word "primarily" - thus providing a loophole for the arms industry.
They need our help. For more information, see the Landmine Facts page on The No More Landmines Trust website.
