Landmines are one of the most significant obstacles to post-conflict peacebuilding
and development. Long after a battle has ended and peace agreements are signed,
landmines remain underground, where they explode to kill and maim people
above. Mines delay the return and resettlement of refugees and internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and block access to vital resources and social services, including
farmland, water, roads, schools, and health clinics. Furthermore the costs of mine
removal and victim assistance weigh heavily on countries struggling to recover
from conflict and rebuild their societies.
Mine clearance progresses slowly. Although more efficient demining tools,
such as mine detection dogs and machines, are used widely, manual metal detectors
remain the primary technique for attaining humanitarian mine clearance, or
ridding an area of all mines. The Mine Ban Treaty,1
which was signed in 1997
and entered into force in 1999 as a result of a unique partnership between
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and states, obliges states’ parties to clear
all antipersonnel mines in their territories within ten years of becoming party to
the treaty and to prohibit the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel
mines. Approximately two-thirds of the sixteen states failed to meet
their 2009 deadlines and requested extensions (ICBL 2009). As of August 2009,
the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a coalition of more than
one thousand NGOs around the world, believed that more than seventy countries
were still affected by mines and that the total mined area was less than 3,000
square kilometers (km2 ). The ICBL also stated that at least 1,100 km2 of mined
areas were cleared from 1999 to 2008, including 158 km2 in 2008 (ICBL 2009).
At the current rate, the world would be free of mines in twenty years.