António Guterres
Mine Action Cannot Wait
In 2023 the United Nations Mine Action Service will acknowledge the day under the campaign “Mine Action Cannot Wait”, highlighting decades of contamination in Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam, as well as draw attention to recent explosive ordnance contamination.
The over-arching goal will be to bring attention to areas of the world that remain contaminated after many years, and where generations have changed their lives to avoid the threat.
Explosive ordnance contamination threatens lives, curtails freedom of movement, limits access to arable land, disenfranchises communities and above all instills fear and insecurity. It spreads terror, and longstanding contamination internalizes this terror. The most affected are the most vulnerable populations.
This campaign makes it clear that the eradication of all landmines cannot wait. Whether it is new contamination in Colombia, Myanmar, Ukraine or Yemen, or old contamination, in Cambodia, Iraq or Viet Nam, clearance must be completed by mine action actors and States Parties of the Mine Ban Convention. It is a human problem.
Background
On 8 December 2005, the General Assembly declared that 4 April of each year shall be observed as the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
It called for continued efforts by States, with the assistance of the United Nations and relevant organizations, to foster the establishment and development of national mine-action capacities in countries where mines and explosive remnants of war constitute a serious threat to the safety, health and lives of the civilian population, or an impediment to social and economic development at the national and local levels.
For over 20 years, the work of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has been driven by the needs of affected people and tailored to the threat of explosive hazards faced by civilians, peacekeepers and humanitarians.
UNMAS works to save lives, to facilitate deployment of UN missions and the delivery of humanitarian assistance, to protect civilians, to support the voluntary return of the internally displaced and refugees, to enable humanitarian and recovery activities and to advocate for international humanitarian and human rights law.
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