(Washington, DC, November 20, 2024) – The Biden administration’s decision to transfer internationally banned anti-personnel mines to Ukraine endangers civilian lives and repudiates the most successful humanitarian disarmament treaty of the past 25 years, Human Rights Watch said Today.
On November 19, 2024, the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden had authorized the supply of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, which US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin did confirmed on November 20. “They asked (Ukraine) for this, and so I think it’s a good idea,” Austin told the New York Times.
“President Biden’s decision to transfer anti-personnel landmines endangers civilian lives and hampers international efforts to eradicate these indiscriminate weapons,” the spokesperson said. Mary Warehamdeputy director of crisis, conflict and weapons at Human Rights Watch. “The US must reverse this reprehensible decision, which only increases the risk of civilian suffering in the short and long term.”
A majority of the world’s countries rejected antipersonnel mines decades ago because of their indiscriminate nature and the long-lasting human suffering they cause, Human Rights Watch said.
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Anti-personnel mines are designed to detonate in response to the presence, proximity or contact of a person. They are usually placed by hand, but they can also be dispersed by aircraft, missiles and artillery or dispersed from specialized vehicles. Anti-personnel landmines cannot distinguish between soldiers and civilians, leading to their unlawful and indiscriminate use international humanitarian law. Uncleared landmines pose a hazard until they are cleared and destroyed. Mined land can displace civilian populations, hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid and prevent agricultural activities. Citizens made up 84 percent of all recorded landmine victims in 2023, while children were 37 percent of victims when that age was recorded.
The United States has not used anti-personnel mines since 1991, has not exported them since 1992, has not produced them since 1997, and had no plans for future purchases. Over the past thirty years, the US has destroyed anti-personnel mines from its stockpile and spent more than $1 billion developing and producing systems that could be considered alternatives to anti-personnel landmines.
On June 21, 2022, President Biden spoke announced a policy commit the US not to use anti-personnel landmines anywhere in the world, except on the Korean Peninsula, and aim to eventually accede to the Mine Ban Treaty. Under that policy, the U.S involved to destroy stockpiles of anti-personnel mines that are “not necessary for the defense of the Korean Peninsula.” It pledged not to develop, produce or acquire anti-personnel landmines. The policy explicitly requires that the US “shall not aid, encourage or induce any person, outside the context of the Korean Peninsula, to engage in activities that would be prohibited” by the Mine Ban Treaty.
In September 1994, the US became the first country to call for the “ultimate elimination” of anti-personnel landmines and participated in the 1996-1997 Ottawa Process, which spawned the Mine Ban Treaty. The US did not adopt or sign the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, but the Clinton administration set a goal for the US to join the treaty in 2006. The administration of George W. Bush reversed that goal in 2004.
In 2014, the Barack Obama administration issued a U.S. landmine policy that bans the production and acquisition of antipersonnel mines and halts their use by U.S. forces anywhere except the Korean Peninsula. In January 2020, then-President and current President-elect Donald Trump canceled a policy that would have eliminated all anti-personnel mines in the US stockpile.
The existing US stockpile of anti-personnel mines is expected to expire in the early 2030s – meaning the mines will become unusable – in part because their 36-year shelf life decreases over time as the batteries embedded in the mines deteriorate over the years . The 2014 policy ruled out prevents the US from extending or modifying the life of the batteries in stockpiled anti-personnel landmines. The 2022 policy was intended to continue this practice.
The Mine Ban Treaty came into effect on March 1, 1999; it bans anti-personnel mines completely and demands the destruction of stockpiles, the clearing of mined areas and assistance to victims. A total of 164 countries have acceded to the treaty, including all NATO member states except the US; all Member States of the European Union; and US allies such as Australia, Japan and Ukraine. Ukraine ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on December 27, 2005, while Russia did not join it.
The US transfer decision comes days before the Fifth Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, which will take place from November 25 to 29 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The US and Ukraine have registered to attend the event, also known as the Siem Reap Summit on a Mine-Free World.
Russia has used anti-personnel mines wide in Ukraine since the large-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, which left hundreds of victims and contaminated large areas of agricultural land. Russia has also created an unprecedented situation in which a country not party to the Mine Ban Treaty uses the weapon in the territory of a state party.
Human Rights Watch has done that too documented Ukrainian use of anti-personnel mines in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty in and around the city of Izium, Kharkivska Province, in 2022, when the city was under Russian control. Ukrainian authorities have said so to research reports that troops used rocket-fired anti-personnel landmines.
By accepting and using anti-personnel mines, Ukraine risks further violating the Mine Ban Treaty, Human Rights Watch said. Under Article 20 of the Mine Ban Treaty, a state party to an armed conflict may not withdraw from the treaty before the end of the armed conflict. The treaty also has no reservations.
“Russian forces have repeatedly used anti-personnel landmines and committed atrocities against civilians across Ukraine in violation of the laws of war, but this does not justify the transfer and use of prohibited weapons,” Wareham said. “Complying with international protection of civilians means ensuring that anti-personnel landmines are never used again.”
Human Rights Watch is a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which, together with its coordinator, Jody Williams, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her efforts to establish the Mine Ban Treaty and for her contributions to a new international conflict. diplomacy based on humanitarian imperatives.
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