The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL)—U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition called on President Joe Biden today to set the U.S. on the right side of history by banning landmines, an inhumane weapon that threatens civilian lives. USCBL and 37 partners, including arms control, human rights, religious, and veterans groups, sent a letter to President Biden this morning, urging the U.S. to ban landmines and pave a path toward joining the Mine Ban Treaty.

Jan. 31 marks the second anniversary of the current U.S. landmine policy, enacted by the Trump administration in 2020, which erased restrictions on the use of these indiscriminate weapons. The Trump policy rejected an Obama-era policy that allowed an exception for armed forces to use antipersonnel landmines only in the Korean Peninsula. On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to roll back the Trump policy, which he deemed “reckless.” Still, more than one year into Biden’s presidency, the Trump policy remains in place.

Humanity & Inclusion, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines – U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition, is proud to add its name to the letter, which follows and is also available in pdf format.

The Time to Act on the U.S. Landmine Policy is Now

January 31, 2022

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
Washington, D.C.

cc: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan;
Secretary of State Antony Blinken;
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

Dear Mr. President:

Today marks the second anniversary of the current U.S. landmine policy. On the campaign trail, you promised to “promptly roll back” President Donald Trump’s antipersonnel landmine policy, which you deemed “reckless.” We could not agree more. The United States’ current landmine policy is dangerous and fails to recognize the harm these indiscriminate weapons have on civilians. However, after more than a year in office, we are disappointed by your inaction on this grave matter. We urge you to take immediate action to fulfill your campaign promise. It’s time to ban antipersonnel landmines, to set the United States on a path to accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and to protect civilians around the world.

While the United States is not yet a signatory, under President Barack Obama’s 2014 policy the U.S. had functionally adhered to most key provisions of the Mine Ban Treaty – except those prohibiting the U.S. from ordering the use of landmines on the Korean peninsula. However, the current new landmine policy announced in January 2020, by the Trump administration, further set the U.S. apart from its allies and the global consensus by allowing for the use of landmines anywhere in the world.

Following UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks in April 2021 that your administration was conducting a landmine policy review, the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition (USCBL-USCMC) and our partners strongly encouraged you to adopt a policy to ban the use,
production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel landmines, and to set the United States on course to swiftly accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Landmines are victim-activated and cannot distinguish between the footstep of a combatant or a civilian, rendering their use incapable of abiding by international humanitarian law. Every day, these barbaric weapons continue to maim and kill civilians, at least 40% of civilian victims are children – often long after a conflict has ended. In 2020, landmines resulted in at least 4,352 casualties globally, according to the Landmine Monitor’s most recent report. The U.S. cannot continue to endorse these inhumane weapons.

For nearly 25 years, the world has rejected antipersonnel landmines through the Mine Ban Treaty – to which 164 countries, including every other member of NATO, are states parties – in recognition of the horrific effects landmines have on civilians around the world.

Fortunately, in recognition of the threats landmines pose to civilians and U.S. service members alike, the U.S. military has not deployed antipersonnel landmines since 1991, excluding the use of a single
munition in 2002; it has not exported them since 1992; and has not produced them since 1997. While these are positive trends, we cannot ignore that for the last 25 years the U.S. has made the intentional decision to remain in the company of countries like China, North Korea, Russia and Syria by stockpiling antipersonnel landmines and failing to formally reject the use of landmines once and for all.

We have a moral obligation to the past victims of landmines and to future generations to do better.

We ask your administration to take the following long-overdue steps:

• Complete the review of the U.S. landmine policy and publish its findings.
• Take immediate executive action to ban the use of antipersonnel landmines without geographic
exceptions, including the Korean peninsula.
• Ban the development, production, stockpiling, and acquisition of all antipersonnel landmines.
• Ban the sale or transfer of any type of antipersonnel landmines to any other government or
partner.
• Lay out an accelerated timeline for the destruction of all stockpiled landmines, and create
mechanisms to ensure public transparency on progress towards that goal.
• Commit to actively and constructively participate in regular meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.
• Set the U.S. on a direct path to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty by 2023, by delivering the treaty to
the Senate and working to secure the Senate’s prompt advice and consent.
• Consult regularly with civil society and victim advocates throughout the decision-making and
implementation process for this significant policy change.

Two years of this reckless and immoral policy is two years too long. We urge immediate action to ban the use of anti-personnel landmines without geographic exceptions, and to set the U.S. on a short direct path to join the Mine Ban Treaty by 2023.

Regards, 

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition Steering Committee:

Amnesty International USA
Arms Control Association
Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Human Rights Watch
Humanity & Inclusion
Legacies of War
Physicians for Human Rights
UNICEF USA
West Virginia Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions/Proud Students Against Landmines (PSALM)

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition (USCBL-USCMC):

American Friends Service Committee
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Global Health Partners
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Mines Advisory Group (MAG)
Peace Direct
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Saferworld (Washington Office)
United Church of Christ, Justice and Local Church Ministries
Win Without War
Women for Weapons Trade Transparency
Women's Action for New Directions (WAND)
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Partners:

Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas
CARE USA
Center for International Policy
CODEPINK
CORE Group
Corruption Tracker Project
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Plan International
The Episcopal Church
War Child Sweden
Washington Office on Latin America
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict
The USCBL-USCMC is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working to ensure that the U.S.
comprehensively prohibits antipersonnel mines and joins the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and calls for
sustained U.S. government financial support for mine clearance and victim assistance.

On Dec. 10, 1997, Humanity & Inclusion (formerly Handicap International) was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Twenty-four years later, the fight to protect civilians continues.

In the 1980s and 1990s, on average 26,000 people a year were killed by anti-personnel mines. The vast majority were women and children.

Outraged by this injustice, Humanity & Inclusion co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in 1992. The coalition’s campaign to outlaw these “cowardly weapons” lasted five years.

Community movement

The campaign led to the formation of a global community protest movement. Within five years, it had won a key victory: the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1997 in Ottawa, Canada. The first treaty to ban a conventional weapon, it was signed by 121 States. Today it has 164 States parties. The United States is not one of them.

Urge the U.S. to Ban Landmines

The same year, the members of the ICBL, including Humanity & Inclusion, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their “role in the promotion of international efforts for a total ban on anti-personnel landmines.”

The prize recognized the tenacity of these civil society organizations in pressuring States to ban these weapons.

“As well as being extraordinarily fast, the Ottawa process rewrote the diplomatic rule book on drawing up international treaties,” says Philippe Chabasse, former co-director of Humanity & inclusion who was responsible for the ICBL campaign. “The pressure from NGOs, the media and public opinion opened the way for a form of public diplomacy powerful enough to hold the conventional diplomatic system in check. A decade earlier, many considered the astonishing proliferation of mines and the rise in civilian casualties as ‘collateral damage’ of conflicts.

“The Ottawa Convention was, in effect, not universally legally binding,” he continues. “However, it set a new standard of behavior that had a political influence on the attitudes of non-signatory States.”

“HI was awarded the Nobel prize, which gave us much greater visibility,” Chabasse explains. “The success of our international campaign still serves as a model, two decades on, for other NGOs who want to shift institutional lines in order to work on the causes of the tragedies they are committed to fighting.”

Ongoing advocacy

For Humanity & Inclusion, this fight does not end with the ban on anti-personnel mines or the clearance of contaminated areas. There is ongoing work to help victims rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

The organization continues to pursue its campaign and leads armed violence reduction programs in 18 countries. This requires Humanity & Inclusion to work in extremely fragile situations, such as those in Iraq and Yemen, and in countries contaminated by mines or explosive devices left over from previous conflicts, like Colombia and Chad.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of other weapons, including cluster munitions, which Humanity & Inclusion helped ban under the Oslo Treaty in 2008. Mines killed or maimed 7,000 people in 2020, of whom 80% were civilians.

Humanity & Inclusion also leads a campaign to end the bombing of urban areas, since 90% of bombing casualties in populated areas are civilians.

The fight to end the use of anti-personnel mines and protect civilians is far from over.

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Humanity & Inclusion has launched a 5-year plan to train the Cambodian Self-Help Demining (CSHD)—a local mine action organization—to take over residual contamination actions after 2025, when Cambodia aims to be landmine-free.

Contamination is considered massive in Cambodia with more than 270 square miles littered with landmines or cluster munitions, remnants of the Vietnam War and civil war in the 1970s and 80s. Over 1 million landmines and almost 3 million explosive ordnances such as cluster munitions, grenades, and mortars have been removed in Cambodia since 1992. But clearance efforts must continue to reach the designation of mine-free. 

Under the International Mine Ban Treaty, a country is declared "mine-free" when all "reasonable" efforts have been made to ensure the country's decontamination, but sporadic explosive ordnance may remain in overlooked areas. In those instances, international mine action leaves the country and passes the responsibility to local organizations.  

CHSD was officially founded in 2007 by Aki Ra, a Khmer man and former child soldier. CSHD works in rural villages throughout Cambodia with a group of approximately 25 mine clearance specialists. Since 2008, the organization has cleared weapons from nearly 3 square miles of land.

Training mine clearance experts 

How are surveys implemented to identify contaminated areas? How are former battlefields cleared? How can organizations intervene immediately after an explosive ordnance has been reported by a resident? Humanity & Inclusion has been training a dozen CSHD mine action specialists in these tasks since January 2021, including procedures of intervention, planning, and security rules. Humanity & Inclusion is also training the CSHD experts to conduct sustainable and cost-efficient operations and to ensure quality management with technical supervision. 

“Humanity & Inclusion supports the clearance experts in their current mine detection and disposal operations," explains Julien Kempeneers, Humanity & Inclusion's Regional Armed Violence Reduction and Humanitarian Mine Action Specialist. "The proposed training is largely dedicated directly to clearance and survey with a target of 8.7 million square feet cleared in target areas this year. We also focus on the cost efficiency of the operations. CSHD estimates that the cost of clearance is about 35 cents per 10 square feet.

"Humanity & Inclusion is supporting CSHD in becoming an autonomous key player within five years," Kempeneers continues. "The local organization will remain in the country after 2025, when other international organizations will be leaving. This is our main goal of development: to empower local actors to take on this responsibility.” 

The training started in January and will end in December.

Landmines threaten communities 

With an estimated 4 to 6 million explosive ordnances left over after conflict, Cambodia is considered to be among the most affected countries. Explosive ordnances severely affect civilian security and rural livelihoods by impeding access to productive resources, markets and broader development, such as building schools, hospitals or wells. 

Civilians collect items of ordnance for their value, as scrap metal, or the explosives they contain. If not disposed of safely, the consequences are often fatal or lead to lifelong disabilities. Given the magnitude of contamination and the country’s current response capacity, the threat remains a major safety and development obstacle for Cambodians in nearly half of its 14,300 villages. 

The partnership with CSHD focuses on the Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces, where an estimated 12,300 residents will benefit from safer access to their environment and improved access to resources. The goal is to hand over cleared land to local communities, so they can use it for housing and farming. 

These mine action activities are funded by the U.S. Department of State Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA).

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Humanity & Inclusion, along with its fellow campaigners at the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition (USCBL-USCMC), is encouraged by a Congressional letter sent today to President Biden, urging him to put the U.S. on the right path toward joining the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty by 2024.

The letter, led by long-time anti-landmine champions Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, counts bipartisan support from 21 Democrats and Republicans across both chambers of Congress. It underscores the importance of backing away from a 2020 Landmine policy enacted by President Trump, which effectively gives U.S. troops the green light to research new landmines, and to deploy these indiscriminate weapons in combat. In one section of the letter, they write:

"We are writing to urge you, as a first step, to reinstate the Obama policy, and by doing so reaffirm the United States as a leader in the global effort to reduce the carnage caused by anti-personnel mines.  We further urge you to direct the Pentagon to expeditiously review its plans for the defense of the Republic of Korea and provide a classified report to you and the Congress describing the options for defending the Republic of Korea with alternatives to anti-personnel mines, and of finally putting the United States on a definitive path to accede to the treaty – an important U.S. foreign policy goal announced by President Clinton and reaffirmed by President Obama – by 2024.  In addition to the more than two decades during which the Pentagon was directed to develop alternatives to anti-personnel landmines, this would provide three more years to finalize plans for such a transition."

The letter ends with a plea: "We urge you to put America on a path to make this longstanding goal a reality." The authors note that the U.S. joining the Mine Ban Treaty "is the right thing to do for our country, for the world, and for our men and women in uniform." 

Jeff Meer, U.S. Executive Director of Humanity & Inclusion, and Steering Committee Chair for USCBL-USCMC responded to the letter, saying, 

"Ending the use of landmines is a moral issue, not a partisan one. This bipartisan message from members of Congress is welcomed. We continue to encourage President Biden to retire landmines and bring the United States into the Mine Ban Treaty. The majority of the world's countries and all our NATO allies have done this, recognizing that a weapon that routinely kills indiscriminately has no place in the arsenal of a modern and just military.”

Since January, more than 8,000 Americans have signed a Humanity & Inclusion petition urging President Biden to join the Mine Ban Treaty. This petition remains open until the Biden Administration takes action toward ending our country’s use, production, stockpiling, and transferring of anti-personnel landmines. 

Last year, the USCBL-USCMC issued a memo outlining policies the President should adopt. In that memorandum, the campaign highlighted changes made in January 2020 under the Trump Administration that would allow for use of victim-activated anti-personnel landmines anywhere in the world, expanding the previous policy that restricted those actions to the Korean peninsula. Today's Congressional letter calls for immediately reversing those Trump-era policies. 

On April 8, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that: "Biden has been clear that he intends to roll back this policy,” referring in part to campaign promise to reverse President Trump’s policy. We urge him to do so immediately. 

In a letter dated April 28, directors of arms control, humanitarian, human rights, religious, veteran and other groups as well as former members of Congress, the former president of National Defense University, and former landmine ambassadors, further called on the President to “set the United States on a short and direct path to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty by declaring the United States’ intent to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty by 2023 as part of the new policy.”  

The United States has not used anti-personnel landmines since 1991, excluding the use of a single munition in 2002. All other NATO allies and a total of 164 countries worldwide have agreed to universally foreswear all anti-personnel mines under the Mine Ban Treaty.  

The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines – U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition, alongside 30 directors of arms control, humanitarian, human rights, religious, veteran and other groups, as well as former members of Congress, ambassadors and military leaders called on President Biden today to move to the right side of history on landmines. In a joint letter, they pressed him to "adopt a policy that sets the United States on course not just to “curtail the use of landmines,” but to ban their use, production, acquisition, and transfer and to swiftly accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty." 

Humanity & Inclusion, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines – U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition, is proud to add its name to the letter, which follows and is also available in pdf format.

Building U.S. Landmines Policy Back and Better

April 28, 2021

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
Washington, D.C.

cc:       National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan;
Secretary of State Antony Blinken;
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

Dear Mr. President:

We appreciate the statement by our UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on April 8 that: "President Biden believes we need to curtail the use of landmines. Now, there has been some discussion of the previous administration’s landmine policy… Biden has been clear that he intends to roll back this policy, and our administration has begun a policy review to do just that.”

In response to the announcement that the administration is conducting a policy review, we -- the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition (USCBL-USCMC) and our partners -- strongly encourage you to adopt a policy that sets the United States on course not just to “curtail the use of landmines,” but to ban their use, production, acquisition, and transfer and to swiftly accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Over the past twenty years, the world has rejected antipersonnel landmines through the Mine Ban Treaty – to which 164 countries, including every other member of NATO, are states parties – in recognition of the horrific effects of landmines on civilian communities around the world. While not a signatory, under President Barack Obama’s 2014 policy the U.S. had functionally adhered to key provisions of the Mine Ban Treaty – except those prohibiting the U.S. from ordering the use of landmines on the Korean peninsula.

While the Obama administration brought U.S. policy further in line with the Mine Ban Treaty, it did not take specific measures toward U.S. accession. Under the 2014 policy, the U.S. committed not to assist, encourage, or induce other nations to use, stockpile, produce, or transfer antipersonnel mines outside of Korea. It also committed to no future production or acquisition of antipersonnel mines, while allowing current U.S. stockpiles to expire.

However, the new landmine policy announced in January 2020 by the Trump administration further set the U.S. apart from its allies and the global consensus by allowing for the use of landmines anywhere in the world. While the new policy claims that non-persistent mines minimize civilian harm, the Mine Ban Treaty rejects the use of such mines and the faulty premise underpinning them.

Decades of efforts to enhance the “safety” of landmines have failed. No matter the technology, landmines are indiscriminate weapons. Regardless of their lifespan, they are victim-activated and do not distinguish between a combatant or a civilian while active, rendering them incapable of abiding by international humanitarian law.

In recognition of the dangers landmines pose to civilians and U.S. service members alike, the United States has not used antipersonnel landmines since 1991, excluding the use of a single munition in 2002; it has not exported them since 1992; and has not produced them since 1997. In the last five years, only the government forces of Syria, Myanmar, and North Korea, as well as non-state actors in conflict areas, have used antipersonnel landmines.

Of the more than 50 countries that once produced landmines, 40 have ceased and renounced production. Under the U.S. landmine policy introduced by the Trump administration, the United States would join the small handful of countries that defy the global norm against landmines by permitting production of these banned indiscriminate weapons.

We have a moral obligation to the past victims of landmines and to future generations to do better.

Additionally, despite significant backsliding on U.S. policy regarding antipersonnel landmines, the U.S. can and should be proud of its world-leading funding and technical support to mine clearance, stockpile destruction, mine risk education, and victim assistance efforts across the globe -- amounting to more than $177 million in 2019 alone. We urge your administration to continue this important humanitarian mine action work.

Recommendations for a New U.S. Landmine Policy

As you and your team evaluate current policy, we urge you not simply to go back to the Obama-era policy, but to build back better.

• Consult with civil society and victim advocates during the policy review and in advance of any policy change or announcement.
• Commit to actively and constructively participate in regular meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.
• Commit to increasing support to Humanitarian Mine Action, particularly in the State Department’s Conventional Weapons Destruction programs and the Defense Department’s Humanitarian Demining Research and Development program.
• Ban the use of antipersonnel landmines without geographic exceptions, including the Korean Peninsula.
• Ban the development, production or acquisition of all antipersonnel landmines, including so-called non-persistent landmines.
• Ban the sale or transfer of any type of antipersonnel landmine to any other government or partner.
• Set the United States on a short and direct path to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty by declaring the United States’ intent to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty by 2023 as part of the new policy.
• Lay out an accelerated timeline for the destruction of stockpiled landmines and provide concrete plans and mechanisms for public reporting on progress.

We appreciate your commitment to improving U.S. landmine policy and welcome the opportunity to work with your team as it moves forward with the policy review.

Sincerely,

Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee

John M Barrows, President & CEO, International Eye Foundation

Federico Borello, Executive Director, Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)

Darren Cormack, Chief Executive Officer, Mines Advisory Group (MAG)

Lt. General (USA, Ret) Robert G. Gard, Jr, Member, Board of Experts, Federation of American Scientists

Susan Gunn, Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Steve Goose, Executive Director, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch

Senator Tom Harkin, Harkin Institute

Lisa Haugaard, Co-Director, Latin America Working Group

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church

Rev. Dr. Nathan Hosler, Director, Church of the Brethren, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy

Liz Hume, Acting CEO & President, Alliance for Peacebuilding

Karl Frederick Inderfurth, Adjunct Professor, George Washington University

Asif Khan, Director of Public Affairs, Helping Hand for Relief and Development

Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association

Sera Koulabdara, Executive Director, Legacies of War

Lora Lumpe, Chief Executive Officer, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Jeff Meer, US Executive Director, Humanity & Inclusion and Chair, USCBL-USCMC Steering Committee

Stephen Miles, Executive Director, Win Without War

Bridget Moix, US Executive Director, Peace Direct

Michael J. Nyenhuis, President and CEO, UNICEF USA

Paul O'Brien, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, President, Women In International Security (WIIS)

Dianne E. Randall, General Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation

Tessie San Martin, President/CEO, Plan International USA

Maria Santelli, Executive Director, Center on Conscience & War

Larry Schwab MD, Co-Director, West Virginia Campaign to Ban Landmines

Robert Schwartz, Vice President, Global Health Partners

Nora Sheets, Coordinator, Proud Students Against Landmines (PSALM) and Co-Director, West Virginia Campaign to Ban Landmines

Sandy Sorensen, Director of Washington Office, United Church of Christ

Amb. Donald Steinberg, former President’s Special Representative for Humanitarian Demining

John Tierney, Executive Director, Council for a Livable World and Executive Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Council for a Livable World

Jose Vasquez, Executive Director, Common Defense

Samuel A. Worthington, Chief Executive Officer, InterAction

Jeff Abramson, Coordinator, USCBL-USCMC

In June 2022, the Biden Administration barred the United States' use, production, stockpiling, and transferring of anti-personnel landmines, with the exception of on the Korean Peninsula, if necessary. These landmines are outdated and inaccurate weapons of war that kill and maim thousands of innocent men, women, and children every year.

By signing the petition below, you are helping us tell President Biden and his administration to go one step further. 164 countries—including all of the members of NATO except the U.S.—have signed an international Mine Ban Treaty and it’s due time we join them.

Three decades after the end of conflict, landmines and other explosive weapons continue to contaminate parts of Cambodia–making it unsafe for people to live and farm and limiting access to resources in some regions. These weapons remain an obstacle in more than 6,400 of Cambodia’s 14,300 villages.

To protect civilians, Humanity & Inclusion has teamed up with the local organization Cambodia Self-Help Demining (CSHD) to launch a new project to remove explosive weapons, teach locals how to stay safe and avoid explosive remnants of war, and create long-term mine action plans in Cambodia’s Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces.

The 12-month, $500,000 project is funded by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

Humanity & Inclusion’s team will support CSHD in surveying land, removing landmines and explosive ordnance, and raising awareness among residents. The ultimate goal is to see CSHD build its own capacity to manage an autonomous mine clearance operation in Cambodia by 2025.

“We are excited to take on such an important project working alongside local villages to ensure people can live and work safely, without fear of losing their lives or limbs to explosive weapons,” says Emmanuel Sauvage, director of the Armed Violence Reduction unit at Humanity & Inclusion. “We are grateful to the U.S. government for recognizing the danger these leftover weapons pose for civilians in their everyday lives and for the support to develop sustainable local mine action capacities.”

In recent decades, organizations like Humanity & Inclusion have assisted the Cambodian government in its efforts to become mine free. With support from the U.S. government and other donors, organizations have removed more than 1 million landmines and 3 million other explosive remnants of war from approximately 700 square miles of land. But civilians are still in danger in another 772 square miles of land that is contaminated by such weapons.

Humanity & Inclusion counts more than 25 years of experience in mine action and first started clearing weapons in Cambodia in 1994. CSHD is a local organization that works to remove weapons in rural villages. The organization was founded in 2007, by a former Khmer child soldier.

This new project will support at least 35 staff in mine action activities, directly benefitting at least 500 people and indirectly helping more than 12,000 people across the two provinces have safer access to their land and resources.

Image: A man wearing protective gear kneels on the ground in a Cambodian village in 2012. He's placing a sign that warns of explosive remnants of war. Copyright: Eric Martin/Figaro Magazine/HI

Humanity & Inclusion landmine clearance continues in Colombia despite the Covid-19 crisis and an upsurge in violence.

In the first half of 2020, mines killed or maimed 181 people in 14 departments of Colombia, according to figures from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In Colombia, the second most heavily mined country in the world after Afghanistan, Humanity & Inclusion has led mine clearance operations since 2017. Teams focus their work on three departments plagued heavily by internal violence: Cauca, Meta and Caquetá.

Thanks to the generous support of the United States of America via the U.S. Department of State’s office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, the Swiss Embassy in Colombia - Swiss Development Cooperation, and donations from thousands of individual donors, Humanity & Inclusion’s Colombian team takes a holistic approach to mine action.

Teams teach civilians to understand the risks posed by mines and what to do if they come across these deadly devices. Explosive ordnance technicians clear mines. And specialists assist victims of explosive devices to regain their strength and independence with physical therapy, psychological support, and access to inclusive employment.

Adapting to new challenges

Humanity & Inclusion continues its efforts despite growing internal violence and population displacement, the emergence of new illegal armed groups who plant explosive devices to protect coca crops and deter rivals, and the Covid-19 crisis.

Despite this complex situation, Humanity & Inclusion continues to adapt its work to ensure safety of staff and civilians. The organization developed a safety plan to continue working while implementing personal precautionary measures against the Covid-19 pandemic and trained more than 100 staff members and volunteers as "community focal points" to raise the mine risk awareness of fellow villagers.

Releasing safe land

Humanity & Inclusion released more than 15 acres of cleared land to allow farming in hazardous mined areas, enhancing the safety of more than 30,000 people.

In the town of Inzá in the Cauca department, teams implemented surveyed villagers on the whereabouts of local mines in order to identify mined and unmined areas. Humanity & Inclusion also worked to ensure that locals understood the risks of mines, and released another four acres of land.

Supporting government officials

In November 2020, Colombia’s deadline to meet its commitment under the Ottawa Convention to clear areas of the country contaminated by explosive devices was extended to 2025. Humanity & Inclusion has provided the Colombian government with technical support to revise and update national standards, including the development and revision of the 2020-2025 demining plan.

In 2021, Humanity & Inclusion expects to completely clear the municipalities of Cajibio and Puracé in Cauca of mines and to release more safe land in Vistahermosa in Meta, Inzá, Páez and Santander de Quilichao. The organization also hopes to expand its footprint soon, working in close coordination with the Colombian mine action authority which coordinates clearance across the country.

Providing victim assistance

Humanity & Inclusion continues to assist mine victims with disabilities and their caregivers, providing physical rehabilitation sessions, psychosocial care, legal assistance and employment support to find gainful jobs in inclusive work environments.

Mines terrorize civilians worldwide

In 2019, more than 5,500 people – 80% of them civilians – were killed or injured by anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war worldwide. Of the civilian victims, 43% were children.

Image: A woman wearing protective gear kneels on the ground as she works to clear mines in Colombia in 2017. Copyright: J.M. Vargas/HI

A message from Jeff Meer, U.S. Executive Director of Humanity & Inclusion:

President-elect Joe Biden has an opportunity to send a clear message to civilians caught in conflict that America cares about their fate.

The United States has long been out of step with its allies and the broader global consensus to ban landmines and cluster munitions. The Biden Administration can reset U.S. policy and finally join the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions. Further, the Administration should fully support the diplomatic process towards an international agreement against bombing in populated areas.

Cluster munitions have recently been used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia war. Landmines still cause around 6,000 casualties annually. These two indiscriminate weapons remain a clear danger to civilians. 123 States have joined the Oslo Convention that bans cluster munitions, and 164 States are parties to the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. Meanwhile, the use of heavy explosive weapons in urban areas has become common in modern conflict, with civilians making up 90% of the victims.

The Biden Administration should quickly ​recommit ​to its campaign pledge to limit using antipersonnel landmines ​except in Korea, announce an intention to eventually stop using or transferring landmines, forswear use of cluster munitions, and commit to the diplomatic process that will lead to an international agreement against heavy bombing in populated areas. We hope the administration will eventually ratify the Ottawa Treaty, completely banning the use of anti-personnel landmines.

Image: A man conducts mine clearance in Lebanon in 2018 as part of a project funded by the United States Arms Removal and Reduction Office and the U.S. Department of State.

Check out these photos of the demining and first aid training exercises in Colombia: