Prepared by Norwegian People's Aid
For the February 2003 Meeting of the
Intersessional Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education
and Mine Action Technologies of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty
Destruction of Anti-Personnel Mines in Mined Areas and Status of Mine Action Programs in Mine Affected State Parties (Article 5)
The ICBL Mine Action Working Group (MAWG) has at various times raised the issue of Article 5 reporting and the inadequate information on status and progress made in relation to clearance of mined areas and status of mine action programs. Hence, as a result of this concern the MAWG calls for standardization and greater detail in Article 7 reports when reporting on Article 5. The reporting should include information on total funding for mine action by donors and recipients, data on impact and size of suspected mine infested areas, and a clear definition and registration of area cleared or otherwise discharged of suspicion. MAWG continues to call for the development of strategic mine action plans with defined priorities and priority setting methodologies by national authorities and other mine action actors. Furthermore, the timeframe for strategic plans should be consistent with the 10-year deadline in the Mine Ban Treaty.
- Some 33 of the total number of 44 mine
affected State Parties have submitted their Article 7 reports1.
- Algeria, Eritrea, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia,
Niger, and Sierra Leone are late submitting their reports, and four have
yet to reach their respective due date - Afghanistan, Angola, Cyprus and
the D. Republic of Congo.
- Among the submitted Article 7 reports
from mine affected State Parties, four have not reported on the mined areas
in the country: Bangladesh, El Salvador, Hungary, and the Philippines.
- Seven of the 33 reporting mine affected
State Parties lack information regarding the status of clearance programs:
Bangladesh, Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hungary, the Philippines,
and Uganda.
- Examples of Article 5 reports completed in accordance with format and requested information and where all relevant data can be found are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Yemen. However, there remains a general lack of reporting on the size, i.e. square meters, of cleared land. Reporting continues to be referred to in numbers of cleared mines.
The following information is retrieved from reports as found on the Art. 7 web page2. In some cases, submitted annexes cannot be accessed on the web, thus some of the information below may not reflect full reporting. As of 3 February 2003 the following mine affected State Parties have reported on Article 5 in their transparency report:
Mine Affected State
Party
|
Article 7
(no. of report submitted) |
Form C
(report on location of mined areas) |
Form F
(report on status of MA programs) |
Form C
(report on MA clearance) |
Mine Clearance deadlines
|
Afghanistan |
due Aug. 2003
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2012
|
Angola |
due June 2003
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2012
|
Albania |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2010
|
Algeria |
due Sep. 2002
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2011
|
Bangladesh |
1
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
2011
|
Bosnia i Herzegovina |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Cambodia |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2010
|
Chad |
2
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Chile |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2011
|
Colombia |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2011
|
Republic of Congo |
1
|
yes
|
no, stockpiles only
|
no, stockpiles
|
2011
|
Congo, DR of |
due April 2003
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2012
|
Croatia |
4
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Cyprus |
due Dec. 2003
|
2012
| |||
Djibouti |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Ecuador |
4
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
El Salvador |
2
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
2009
|
Eritrea |
due July 2002
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2011
|
Guatemala |
2
|
yes
|
no
|
no
|
2009
|
Guinea Bissau |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2011
|
Honduras |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Hungary |
4
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
2009
|
Jordan |
4
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Liberia |
due Nov. 2000
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2010
|
Macedonia FYR of |
2
|
yes
|
yes (clearance
reported in Form C) |
no
|
2009
|
Malawi |
due Aug. 1999
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2009
|
Mauritania |
2
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2011
|
Mozambique |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Namibia |
due Aug. 1999
|
2009
| |||
Nicaragua |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Niger |
due Feb. 2000
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2009
|
Peru |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Philippines |
4
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
2010
|
Rwanda |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2010
|
Senegal |
3
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Sierra Leone |
due Mar. 2002
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
2011
|
Swaziland |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2009
|
Tajikistan |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2010
|
Thailand |
4
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Tunisia |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2010
|
Uganda |
1
|
yes
|
no
|
no
|
2009
|
Yemen |
4
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
Zambia |
1
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
2011
|
Zimbabwe |
2
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
2009
|
1 According to postings
on http://disarmament.un.org/MineBan.nsf
as of 3 February 2003
2 The information can be found at http://disarmament.un.org/MineBan.nsf