Anti-personnel mines are back in Europe


To mark Poland’s official withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, Julia Głębocka, Human rights researcher for Amnesty International Poland, reflects on what the return of these indiscriminate weapons means for human rights in Europe.

Not so long ago, in 2020, the European Union was funding mine relief efforts in Lebanon and hoping to see an anti-personnel mine-free world within five years. HALO Ukraine, an EU-supported organization, had already been making tangible change, removing explosives from Ukrainian soil since 2016. In Chad, the EU-funded project PRODECO, was reintegrating anti-personnel mine victims into society through long-term medical care and rehabilitation, as well as supporting demining efforts.

Read more…
Source: Reliefweb News


Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Ukraine’s allies commit $244 million for humanitarian mine clearance, Kyiv says

    July 26, 2023

    Ukraine’s allies have committed to allocating $244 million and providing special equipment for the purpose of humanitarian mine clearance, First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Tuesday. She said the donors included the United States, European Union, Japan, Germany, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Switzerland, Korea and the Howard Buffett ...

  • Ireland: Government approves training engagement with EU Military Assistance Mission in Ukraine (EUMAM)

    July 26, 2023

    The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin, this week received Government approval for the Defence Forces’ proposed training engagement with the EU Military Assistance Mission in Ukraine (EUMAM). It follows Cabinet approval in February of the participation of up to 30 Permanent Defence Forces personnel to the newly established EUMAM in support of Ukraine. ...

  • Belgium: Six men guilty of murder over Brussels terrorist attacks in 2016

    July 25, 2023

    Six men have been found guilty of murder and attempted murder for their part in the 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks that killed 32 people and injured more than 300. They include Salah Abdeslam, who is already serving a life sentence in France for his role in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks which targeted the Bataclan theatre ...

  • UK: Photo ID required to buy ammonium nitrate from October

    July 25, 2023

    Farmers, growers and buying co-operatives are being warned about an impending change in the law which will require them to provide photo ID when purchasing ammonium nitrate fertilisers from 1 October 2023. According to the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), the Home Office has updated its list of substances covered by the Control of Poisons and Explosives ...

  • UK: Army dogs should be better protected, says former handler

    July 25, 2023

    Dogs who have served in the military should have equal status to human veterans and receive better aftercare, a former Army handler has said. Canines can be the first to be sent into the most dangerous situations. And dog charity Hero Paws said they should be treated equally to people once their time on the frontline ...

  • IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine – Update 175

    July 24, 2023

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have observed directional anti-personnel mines on the periphery of the site of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today. During a walkdown on 23 July, the IAEA team saw some mines located in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers. ...

  • Russia’s FSB says traces of explosives found on foreign grain ship

    July 24, 2023

    Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on a ship travelling from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don in Russia to pick up grain. The FSB said the ship had been docked in the Ukrainian port of Kiliia in May, and that it may have been used to ...

  • Italy: Defusing operation of the WWII device in Chivasso has been completed

    July 23, 2023

    The operation to defuse the Second World War war device that had been found in recent days in via Curie has been successfully completed (and ahead of schedule). The operation concluded around 8 a.m. The intervention, which began at dawn, was completed around 8 am by the EOD officers of the XXXII Regiment of the Engineers ...

  • How controversial cluster munitions give Ukraine needed punch during counteroffensive

    July 23, 2023

    Ukraine has begun using American cluster munitions in the field and is doing so effectively, according to the White House. “They are using them appropriately,” National Security Spokesman John Kirby said on July 21. “They’re using them effectively, and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive maneuvering. I think ...

  • The Fanta Bomb & Improvised Munitions in Ukraine

    July 23, 2023

    All sorts of munitions have been dropped from drones ranging from hand grenades to Molotov balloons to mortar rounds and even blocks of explosive. In this article/video, the authors look at a couple of interesting examples of improvised munitions. In early May an interesting short video was shared by a Ukrainian combatant showing a Fanta soft ...

  • Ukrainian troops learn bomb disposal skills in Scottish Highlands

    July 22, 2023

    Ukrainian troops have been on exercises in the Scottish Highlands learning how to disarm and defuse Russian bombs, booby traps and mines. Royal Navy divers and experts have been training their Ukrainian counterparts on finding and neutralising explosive devices in Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. The programme included clearing deep water shipping lanes and rendering beaches ...

  • Russia: Four reporters injured in Ukrainian cluster munitions strike

    July 22, 2023

    Four Izvestiya and RIA Novosti reporters were injured in a Ukrainian cluster munitions strike at the Zaporozhye Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, adding that RIA Novosti reporter Rostislav Zhuravlyov died during evacuation. “At about 12:00 on July 22, 2023, Ukrainian forces carried out an artillery strike at a group of Izvestia and RIA Novosti ...

  • Ukraine is now the most mined country. It will take decades to make safe

    July 22, 2023

    In a year and a half of conflict, land mines — along with unexploded bombs, artillery shells and other deadly byproducts of war — have contaminated a swath of Ukraine roughly the size of Florida or Uruguay. It has become the world’s most mined country. The transformation of Ukraine’s heartland into patches of wasteland riddled with ...

  • IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine – Update 174

    July 20, 2023

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have carried out additional inspections and walkdowns at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) over the past week – so far without observing any heavy military equipment, explosives or mines – but they are still awaiting access to the rooftops of the reactor buildings, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi ...

  • Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukraine is ineffective, noisy, and easy to strike

    July 19, 2023

    Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukrainian forces by the West is “ineffective” because it is noisy, large, and easy to strike, according to a commander speaking The Washington Post. Officers told the publication that the Ukrainian military had encountered minefields between three and ten miles deep, laid with anti-tank and tripwired anti-personnel mines, in their counteroffensive to ...