Q&A: US Antipersonnel Landmine Transfers

US Landmine Transfers Contravene Long-Standing Policy

Question-and-Answer Document on President Biden’s Decision

(Washington, DC, December 13, 2024) – The Biden administration’s decision to transfer internationally banned antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine risks civilian lives and contravenes longstanding United States policy, Human Rights Watch said today in issuing a question-and-answer document about the transfers decision.

“President Biden’s decision to transfer antipersonnel landmines contravenes US policy and represents a major setback for international efforts to eradicate these indiscriminate weapons,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “The US should reverse this reprehensible decision and join the majority of countries that have rejected antipersonnel mines due to their indiscriminate nature and the long-term human suffering they cause.”

On November 20, 2024, the US Department of State announced the Biden administration had authorized providing antipersonnel mines to Ukraine. A second transfer of antipersonnel mines was announced on December 2. The question-and-answer document looks at how the transfers contravene Biden’s 2022 policy on antipersonnel mines and break years of incremental steps by the US government to align its policy and practice with the 1997 treaty banning antipersonnel mines.

Human Rights Watch is a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, together with its coordinator, Jody Williams, for its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty and for its contributions to a new international diplomacy based on humanitarian imperatives.