USIP’s Virginia Bouvier discusses the Landmine Awareness Day.
April 11, 2011
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USIP’s Virginia Bouvier discusses the Landmine Awareness Day.
- The United Nations General Assembly has designated April 4 as International Mine Awareness Day. Why is the issue of landmines important for building peace?
- Who is most affected by landmines?
- Is the problem of landmines getting worse?
- What explains this decline? What has the international community done to address the issue of landmines?
- What is USIP doing to address the issue of landmines?
- What more could be done?
The United Nations General Assembly has designated April 4 as International Mine Awareness Day. Why is the issue of landmines important for building peace?
Landmines are one of the most common and indiscriminate weapons of modern warfare. Since World War II, internal armed conflicts have become more frequent than wars between states, and in these internal wars, tens of millions of landmines have been sown. This is a weapon that does not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, or between a time of war and a time of peace. As Jody Williams noted in her 1997 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, once a landmine is sown, it goes on killing--even after peace comes.
Who is most affected by landmines?
Thousands of people in war-torn countries and countries emerging from war are killed or maimed each year by landmines and other explosive devices. These weapons are often used in developing countries that, in the aftermath of conflict, may lack the resources to de-mine the land or to address the basic human needs of landmine survivors. Landmine victims and their families, already some of the most vulnerable citizens in a country, frequently face stigmatization, discrimination, and physical, economic, psychological, and social challenges to their mobility and autonomy. Many survivors also face displacement or, on the contrary, are left behind when communities are displaced by violence.
Is the problem of landmines getting worse?
No, to the contrary, the number of landmines and landmine victims has declined steadily in the past decade. In 2006, the first year of an International Day for Mine Awareness, some 15,000-20,000 people were reported to have been killed by landmines; some 20 percent of those were children. By 2009, the “Landmine & Cluster Munition Report” documented 3,956 new casualties attributable to landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), a decline of 28 percent from the previous year.
Only one government, Myanmar/Burma, continues to lay antipersonnel mines, though non-state armed actors there and in Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Pakistan and Yemen continue to plant new landmines. The country with the most landmine victims today is Afghanistan, followed by Colombia.
What explains the changes in landmine use? What has the international community done to address the issue of landmines?
Education and prevention has dramatically curtailed the use of landmines, and citizen education has greatly reduced landmine casualties in affected communities. Public awareness campaigns have secured the ratification by over 150 governments of the Ottawa Treaty. Signatory nations committed under that treaty to destroy and cease using, stockpiling, producing, and transferring anti-personnel mines. The Treaty attests to the important work of people like Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (which now includes more than 1,000 nongovernmental organizations worldwide), the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, government officials, and many other local, national, regional and international organizations and partners. While compliance is still imperfect and some 39 states (including the United States) have yet to ratify the treaty, these efforts to articulate international norms and standards and the public education and advocacy that have accompanied their formulation and implementation have significantly reduced the use of landmines.
UNICEF has focused efforts on mine risk education, advocacy of international standards and national legislation, and victim assistance. Mercy Corps has been in the forefront of designing integral methodologies that empower individuals with physical and mental disabilities to organize, and secure access to education, services and jobs.
Partnerships with local organizations have been extremely important. Local organizations have deep understanding of the particular challenges in a given region, and are well situated to monitor compliance with any agreements that might be reached. In Colombia, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Geneva Call partnered with the Colombian Campaign Against Mines (CCCM), the Catholic church, Redepaz, and villagers in Micoahumado and Samaniego. This partnership secured a sustained commitment from the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian military to clear mines in Micoahumado and Samaniego and on surrounding roads.
What is USIP doing to address the issue of landmines?
USIP’s new Global Peacebuilding Center opens in the fall at our headquarters building adjacent to the National Mall. Multimedia exhibits in the Global Peacebuilding Center will include a series of “witness videos” that will provide visitors with first-hand accounts from peace-builders around the world. One of these videos will feature a story of the Mine Detection Dogs, trained by the Marshall Legacy Institute to sniff out landmines and protect lives and livelihoods in the aftermath of war.
Another video will feature Colombian rock artist Juanes, a 17-time Grammy award winner who has embraced the issue of landmines and peace in his performance repertoire and has established Fundación Mi Sangre, a foundation dedicated to working with children and adolescents who have been victims of landmines and otherwise impacted by Colombia’s internal armed conflict. The foundation has crafted cultural programs and awareness campaigns that have reached across Colombia and beyond.
Through its grants program, USIP has funded a number of individuals and organizations (such as Survivor Corps, Geneva Call, and Landmine Survivor Network) that have worked to document, educate about, and address the humanitarian crisis caused by landmines, as well as psychosocial support for survivors, and issues of justice and reconciliation more broadly.
- In the 1990s, USIP funded a research project on the socio-economic consequences of landmines—a study that resulted in the seminal work on the topic: After the Guns Fall Silent: The Enduring Legacy of Landmines by Shawn Roberts and Jody Williams. This authoritative volume quickly became a key reference work on the effects of landmines in heavily mined countries around the world.
- USIP has also funded a study of the existing and emerging technologies (including those that facilitate the removal of landmines) that could enhance multinational operations to promote peace.
- USIP financed production of a documentary film, Bombhunters, on the long-term human consequences of war and genocide in Cambodia resulting from the persistence of land mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other munitions. The film explores the social, cultural, and historical context and experiences of rural villagers who seek out and dismantle UXO to sell the scrap metal as a means of protecting their families from harm and to earn enough money to survive. [Link to: http://www.bombhunters.com/].
- More recently, USIP supported Survivor Corps and its Colombian partners (Corporación Conciudadanía and Fundación para la Reconciliación) to develop a training program in Antioquia that provided psychosocial support to 200 conflict survivors and ex-combatants in recovering from their respective traumas, reintegrating back into society, and serving as peer counselors to others.
What more could be done?
The international donor community could certainly do more to support education and prevention efforts, to support survivors in war-affected communities, and to raise awareness about the particular needs and contributions of those disabled through conflict or disaster. The U.S. Institute of Peace has a role to play in its broader work on conflict prevention, resolution, and management in ensuring that the different communities engaged in conflicts and their resolution—survivors, development professionals, government officials, disability advocates, donors, peace practitioners, mediators—are aware of the special needs and potential contributions of those impacted by landmines.