"… Mine clearance prevents an indiscriminate weapon from causing harm and havoc long after conflicts have ended, while also creating jobs, transforming danger zones into productive land and setting societies on course for lasting security …"

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

4th April 2011

Until the Nineties, landmines or other cluster munitions were used by almost all armed forces. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty led to a dramatic drop in landmine use but the weapon is still used in many places, and the threat from mines planted during past conflicts remains a real and lasting danger to local populations.

International Day for Mine Awareness was established to remind States, NGOs and the UN of the need for continued and sustained efforts to clear mines and explosives left over from war. These explosives pose a serious threat to the health and safety of the civilian population, injuring and killing long after war has ended. Removing them is costly, dangerous and time consuming so often they are left in the ground, claiming victims decades after the end of conflict or the declaration of a ceasefire. Unbelievably, landmines planted during World War 1 are still maiming and killing victims in parts of North Africa and Europe.

Landmine statistics are grim: every twenty minutes a victim falls somewhere in the world and half die on the spot; 800 people are killed every month, and 1200 mutilated, mainly women and children. Many of the victims in developing countries are already in poverty: an artificial limb could cost them the equivalent of a year’s salary. Landmines also deprive local communities of productive land, hampering economic recovery and local food security. This particularly impacts on women. In rural areas they are the ones most often responsible for the day to day care of the family small holding on which they grow the subsistence crops to feed their family. They take a huge risk by using land known to have been used for landmines.

The position of Soroptimist International:

SI urges governments to:-

1. Ratify and implement all conventions and treaties relevant to the limitation and reduction of arms
2. Actively support UN and other international peacekeeping initiatives
3. Include women in decision making processes concerning conflict resolution, peace mediation and negotiation and in preventive diplomacy
4. Lobby and support all relevant bodies to secure a world wide ban on the production and use of cluster bombs;
5. Lobby for and secure the clearance of contaminated territory of unexploded bombs and mines. 

 

The work of Soroptimist International:

Soroptimist International has been involved in the campaign for mine clearance and the support of victims for many years. The ‘Limbs for Life’ Quadrennial Project which ran from 1999 -2003 focussed on providing prosthetic limbs for victims of landmines. This project was carried out in partnership with the International Red Cross and provided prostheses to victims in Angola, Afghanistan and Georgia. In total, Soroptimists funded 24,500 prostheses by raising over £1,000,000 GBP, raising awareness and supporting global advocacy in the years after the 1997 ban at the same time.

Our aims were to restore human dignity to the victims, to help them become mobile again and reintegrate them into society, to enable children to return to school, and to allow women to lead a viable family life once more. Through the provision of prosthetic limbs, the victims were able to achieve a degree of rehabilitation, allowing them to carry out tasks that had previously been too difficult.

SI maintains close links to the on going work to clear land mines and cluster munitions. Kate Moore, a Soroptimist from SIGBI, is a director of AOAV (Action on Armed Violence) which was formerly  the Landmine Action/UK Arm of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Since 2003 she has worked closely with Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) in the UK and overseas. To read more about her work on this issue, visit her ‘Agents of Change’ blog.