Geneva, Switzerland
Thank you for giving me the floor, Mr. President.
The Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) is an important international instrument, and should remain so for the foreseeable future. It should continue to be relevant in protecting civilian populations from the effects of armed conflict. Indeed, it should be expanded, most notably by negotiation and adoption of a new protocol addressing the humanitarian problems caused by cluster munitions.
Despite the importance of the CCW as a whole, Amended Protocol II is now largely a relic of the past. And that is a good thing. Amended Protocol II contains restrictions on antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines and booby-traps, and provisions related to post conflict measures. But antipersonnel mines are now comprehensively banned by the Mine Ban Treaty. Explosive booby-traps are comprehensively banned by the Mine Ban Treaty. Antivehicle mines that function as antipersonnel mines (that is, those with tripwires, breakwires, tilt rods, or low pressure fuzes) are prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty. Post-conflict remedial measures are more thoroughly covered in both Protocol V on explosive remnants of war and in the Mine Ban Treaty.
With respect to antipersonnel mines, the Mine Ban Treaty and the norm it represents have clearly overtaken the complicated and unworkable restrictions of Amended Protocol II. There are 151 States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, including 76 of the 86 States Parties to Amended Protocol II. Thus, for antipersonnel mines, Amended Protocol II is only relevant for ten countries.
The provisions to antivehicle mines, then, are clearly the most important aspects of Amended Protocol II. Yet many States Parties have spent the past few years emphasizing that those provisions are not adequate to address the humanitarian dangers of antivehicle mines, and that a new protocol is needed. It is regrettable that States Parties have been unable to agree on new protocol after so much discussion.
Mr. President, several delegations have referred to the "complementarity" of Amended Protocol II and the Mine Ban Treaty. There is some validity to that notion in that Amended Protocol II addressed antivehicle mines while the Mine Ban Treaty does not. But complementarity does not extend to antipersonnel mines. Amended Protocol II should not be seen as a convenient way-station on the journey toward the Mine Ban Treaty. A way-station that justifies ongoing use and production of antipersonnel mines, a way-station that justifies maintenance of large stockpiles of antipersonnel mines. The essence of the Mine Ban Treaty is that any use, production, stockpiling or trade of antipersonnel mines is unacceptable to the world community.
We are pleased to note that many countries that are not party to the Mine Ban Treaty are nevertheless acting in accordance with its provisions. Global use and production of antipersonnel mines continues to decline. In the past year, only Burma and Russia were actively laying antipersonnel mines. In recent years, several states not party to the Mine Ban Treaty have declared that they no longer produce antipersonnel mines.
In another encouraging development, more and more states not party to the Mine Ban Treaty are voting in favor of the annual UN General Assembly resolution promoting universalization to the Mine Ban Treaty-a record 24 supported last year's resolution. This includes Amended Protocol II members such as China, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Finland, and non-members Azerbaijan and Kuwait for the first time.
We note that several delegations today spoke of the need for those Amended Protocol II States Parties that exercised the nine-year deferral period for certain key provisions of the protocol to share information with others about the steps they have taken to come into compliance. We fully agree on the need for transparency, and regret that the two states with deadlines in December 2007-China and Pakistan-did not provide any details on the measures they have taken in their statements today.
In closing, we note that we were pleased to hear several Amended Protocol II members who are not yet part of the Mine Ban Treaty express today their support for the goal of the elimination of antipersonnel mines. But the time to embrace this emerging international norm is now, not at some distant point in the future.
Thank you.
