Attachments
Introduction
On 29 November 2024, after a week of – at times – intense exchanges, the Fifth Review Conference of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) (also referred to as the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine-Free World) successfully came to a close. As one of its main outcomes, the Conference adopted the Siem Reap-Angkor Action Plan (SRAAP), which will guide efforts to implement the Convention until the Sixth Review Conference in 2029.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of a worsening global security environment and increasing pressure on international humanitarian law, as exemplified in current conflicts in Africa,
Europe, and the Middle East. Within this broader context, international instruments applicable to mine action met challenges of their own, with one State – Lithuania – announcing its decision to withdraw from the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), and others reconsidering their membership of the APMBC. Discussions during the latest annual conferences of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) were also deadlocked over disagreements on the rules of procedure.
This issue brief analyses some of the key provisions of the SRAAP, showing how they build not only on its predecessor – the Oslo Action Plan (OAP) of 2019 – but on 25 years of lessons learned in a process of continuous improvement, and adaptation to changing operational environments and new challenges.
The brief also considers the broader context of the Conference outcome, illustrating the potential impact of international developments, both political and financial, on APMBC implementation and on the overall system of international humanitarian law of which the Convention is considered a part.
A few days before the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit, the United States of America (State not party to the APMBC) announced that it had approved a transfer of anti-personnel mines (APMs) to Ukraine (a State Party), triggering public condemnation by civil society organizations, complicating negotiations of the Siem Reap-Angkor Political Declaration, and generally placing further strain on the international norms against landmines.
Under these difficult circumstances, a successful outcome of the Summit was not assured.
Its positive conclusion represented a critical reaffirmation of the international community’s commitment towards this historic humanitarian disarmament treaty