• Finland’s Minister of International Development, Heidi Hautala, announced that her government would join the Mine Ban Treaty during the treaty's Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Cambodia last November. 

    © 2011 Mary Wareham/Human Rights Watch
    Finland Joins Landmine Ban Treaty

    Finland’s action to join the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines should spur the United States and others to get on board without delay. 

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  • Landmines

    Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons that have killed and maimed primarily civilians. The weapon cannot distinguish between a soldier during conflict and a civilian stumbling upon one even decades later. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty comprehensively bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines, and requires states to destroy their stockpiles within four years and to clear all mined areas within 10 years. The treaty also contains provisions to assist landmine survivors and to support mine risk education programs. A total of 157 states have joined the Mine Ban Treaty and are making progress in achieving a mine-free world. Through its research and advocacy, Human Rights Watch is working to ensure that all states join the treaty and that its life-saving provisions are fully implemented.

    Take Action: Tell the United States that it's time to ban antipersonnel landmines and join the Mine Ban Treaty.

    Read more about which states have taken action to eliminate landmines in Landmine Monitor.

Reports

Arms

  • US: Wrong Time for Bahrain Arms Deal
    Feb 8, 2012
    The Obama administration’s decision to move forward on a $1 million arms sale to Bahrain sends the wrong signal to a country that is engaged in serious human rights abuses.
  • Finland Joins Landmine Ban Treaty
    Jan 11, 2012

    Finland’s action to join the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines should spur the United States and others to get on board without delay. 

  • Landmine Treaty: Progress in Phnom Penh
    Dec 2, 2011
    The international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines is making strong progress toward its objective of a mine-free world, as a major meeting on landmines wrapped up in Phnom Penh. However, the United States’ review of its policy has regrettably entered its third year without conclusion.
  • Statement on Mine Ban Treaty Compliance Issues
    Dec 2, 2011

    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) delegation, delivered a statement at the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.   

  • Statement on Mine Ban Treaty Stockpile Destruction
    Dec 1, 2011
    Mark Hiznay, senior researcher in the arms division of Human Rights Watch, delivered a statement on stockpile destruction obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.
  • Statement on the Mine Ban Treaty during the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties
    Nov 30, 2011

    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and head of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) delegation, delivered a statement at the Mine Ban Treaty Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh.  

  • Cluster Bombs: Nations Reject Weakening of Global Ban
    Nov 25, 2011

    An attempt by the United States and others to weaken the comprehensive ban on cluster munitions has failed. The effort by the US and other users and stockpilers of cluster munitions to create a new protocol to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) was rejected on November 25, 2011, in Geneva after more than 50 states said there was no consensus for adopting it.  

  • Statement on the Draft CCW Protocol on Cluster Munitions
    Nov 24, 2011

    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), delivered a statement on the Draft CCW Protocol on Cluster Munitions.

  • Statement on the Chair's Second Revised Draft CCW Protocol on Cluster Munitions
    Nov 23, 2011
    Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), delivered a statement on the Chair's Second Revised Draft CCW Protocol on Cluster Munitions.
  • Landmine Treaty: More Members, but Use Persists
    Nov 22, 2011

    The new use of landmines in a handful of countries threatens to undermine progress toward banning the weapons. The membership in the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines has expanded, however, to 158 countries.

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