What is the review conference?
The Review Conference happens every five years and its goal is to review the operation and status of the Ottawa Treaty which bans the use of anti-personnel landmines. The Treaty came into being 25 years ago, shortly after Princess Diana visited a minefield with The HALO Trust in Angola and campaigned for landmines to be banned.
The Fifth Review Conference is taking place between the 25th and the 29th of November 2024 in Siem Reap, Cambodia—home to one of HALO's largest country programmes. State Parties to the Treaty and delegates from the mine action world will be in attendance.
Why is it significant?
This will be the first Review Conference since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where it is estimated that 2 million landmines have been laid. It also follows the announcement that the US will send anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine.
As our CEO said in this article, “This is a moment of moral reckoning for the international community.”
About the Ottawa Treaty
Since coming into force in 1999, the Ottawa Treaty (also known as the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention) has provided the international framework to push for the end of suffering caused by landmines. It has been instrumental in reducing the production and usage of anti-personnel landmines globally, and in encouraging international support for humanitarian clearance in protection of civilian lives and livelihoods.
In Cambodia, landmines continue to claim lives of civilians decades after the cessation of conflict. HALO's 1,100 staff continue to work tirelessly to make the country safe, so far having cleared over 300,000 anti-personnel mines across the country.
A new age of minelaying
With the scale of landmine contamination in Ukraine, we are living in a new age of minelaying. With around 60 conflicts raging around the world, millions of civilians are forced to live with mines in other war-torn countries such as Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
The Mine Ban Treaty is a key plank of the rules-based international order and the most successful disarmament treaty ever signed. The Review Conference offers an opportunity to reflect on the implications of the US decision and revive momentum and commitments to the convention. Importantly, it is a chance for stakeholders to come together to review successes and learnings and agree the way forward.
It is an opportunity to remind stakeholders of the humanitarian importance of continued clearance and continued advocacy needed to end the production and use of these deadly weapons.
As we approach the Fifth Review Conference, while many parts of the world remain plagued by landmines, thanks to the tireless efforts of donors and operators, some countries are gearing up to celebrate a country free from the threat of landmines.
In Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka the end is in sight, but securing support for the final push will be essential. Zimbabwe, once one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, could be mine-free within a matter of years. Between 2012 and 2024, HALO alone has destroyed over 210,000 landmines in north-eastern Zimbabwe - that's nearly four landmines for every person in that part of the country.
For many states, the Review Conference offers an opportunity to see how far we have come, and to assess what is needed to ensure continued progress.
"In areas that have been cleared of landmines, people are now able to farm, we are now free to walk in those areas. We are happy because our animals are not dying anymore... We hope that we can finish clearing the remaining areas that have mines so that we can walk freely wherever we want to go.”
HALO AT THE REVIEW CONFERENCE
HALO representatives from across our country programmes will be in attendance in Siem Reap. Our key focuses will be on the following:
Afghanistan: We will be presenting on the realities of working in Afghanistan in 2024 and the opportunities for progress. With some of the highest civilian accident rates in the world, HALO and other operators remain committed to making land safe and saving lives in Afghanistan.
Gender and Diversity: HALO will be encouraging meaningful engagement around gender and diversity considerations in the context of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
Steps to a Safer Future: We will be looking at successes and challenges to landmine clearance over the last five years, based on findings from the Clearing the Mines 2024 Report.
National ownership: We’ll be celebrating national ownership, looking specifically at examples from Angola and offering valuable lessons for other affected State Parties.
Technology: We'll be looking at how continued investment in innovation in the technologies used in mine action could "supercharge" the future of operations.
