The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) considers the Mine Ban Treaty the only viable comprehensive framework for achieving a mine-free world. The ICBL believes that the only real measure of the Mine Ban Treaty’s success will be the concrete impact that it has on the global mine problem. This Landmine Monitor Report 2001 provides a means of measuring that impact.^[2] It is evident that the treaty, and the ban movement more generally, are making a significant difference. A growing number of governments are joining the Mine Ban Treaty, and as detailed below, there is decreased use of antipersonnel mines, a dramatic drop in production, an almost complete halt to trade, rapid destruction of stockpiled mines, fewer mine victims in key affected countries, and more land demined.

Despite the progress, the reality is that antipersonnel mines continue to be laid and to take far too many victims. The landmine problem is not solved, and will not be solved without sustained commitment from governments and non-governmental organizations.

About the Landmine Monitor

The main elements of the Landmine Monitor system are a global reporting network, a central database, and an annual report. Landmine Monitor Report 2001: Toward a Mine-Free World is the third such annual report. The first report was released in May 1999 at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo, Mozambique while the second report was released in September 2000 at the Second Meeting of States Parties in Geneva, Switzerland. To prepare this third report, Landmine Monitor had 122 researchers from 95 countries gathering information. The report is largely based on in-country research, collected by in-country researchers. Landmine Monitor has utilized the ICBL campaigning network, but has also drawn in other elements of civil society to help monitor and report, including journalists, academics and research institutions.

Landmine Monitor is not a technical verification system or a formal inspection regime. It is an effort by civil society to hold governments accountable to the obligations that they have taken on with regard to antipersonnel mines; this is done through extensive collection, analysis and distribution of information that is publicly available. Though in some cases it does entail investigative missions, Landmine Monitor is not designed to send researchers into harm’s way and does not include hot war-zone reporting.

Landmine Monitor is meant to complement the States Parties reporting required under Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty. It was created in the spirit of Article 7 and reflects the shared view that transparency and cooperation are essential elements to the successful elimination of antipersonnel mines. But it is also a recognition that there is a need for independent reporting and evaluation.

Landmine Monitor and its annual report aim to promote and facilitate discussion on mine-related issues, and to seek clarifications, in order to help reach the goal of a mine-free world. Landmine Monitor works in good faith to provide factual information about issues it is monitoring, in order to benefit the international community as a whole. It seeks to be critical but constructive in its analysis.

Landmine Monitor Report 2001contains information on every country of the world with respect to landmine ban policy, use, production, transfer, stockpiling, mine clearance, mine awareness, and survivor assistance. Thus, the Monitor does not only report on States Parties and their treaty obligations, it also looks at signatory states and non-signatories as well. All countries - as well as information on key players in mine action and victim assistance in the mine-affected countries - are included in this report in the belief it will provide an important means to gauge global effectiveness on mine action and banning the weapon.

As was the case in previous years, Landmine Monitor acknowledges that this ambitious report has its shortcomings. It is to be viewed as a work in progress, a system that will be continuously updated, corrected and improved. We welcome comments, clarifications, and corrections from governments and others, in the spirit of dialogue and in the search for accurate and reliable information on a difficult subject.

Landmine Monitor 2001 Process

In June 1998, the ICBL formally agreed to create Landmine Monitor as an ICBL initiative. A Core Group was established to develop and coordinate the Landmine Monitor system. The Core Group consists of Human Rights Watch, Handicap International (Belgium), Kenya Coalition Against Landmines, Mines Action Canada, and Norwegian People’s Aid. Overall responsibility for, and decision-making on, the Landmine Monitor system rests with the Core Group. Additional organizations and individuals provided research coordination for this third report.

Research grants forLandmine Monitor Report 2001 were awarded in September 2000. The global research network met in ten regional meetings between October 2000 and January 2001 to discuss initial findings, exchange information, assess what research and data gathering had already taken place, identify gaps, and ensure common research methods and reporting mechanisms for the Monitor. In January and February 2001 draft research reports were submitted to the Landmine Monitor research coordinators for review and comment. On 8-9 March 2001 the members of the research network met a second time in Washington, D.C. to present their final reports, discuss their main findings through a peer review process and evaluate the initiative to date.

Throughout May, June and July the Landmine Monitor’s team of regional and thematic coordinators verified sources and edited country reports, with a team at Human Rights Watch taking responsibility for final fact-checking, editing and assembly of the entire report.Landmine Monitor Report 2001 also includes appendices with reports from major actors in the mine ban movement, such as UN agencies and the ICRC. The report and its executive summary were printed during August and presented to the Third Meeting of States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in Managua, Nicaragua in September 2001.

Landmine Monitor thanks the donors to the initiative and this third annual report. Landmine Monitor Report 2001 reflects the ICBL’s views and Landmine Monitor’s donors are in no way responsible for, and do not necessarily endorse, the material contained in the report. It was only possible to carry out this work with the aid of grants from:

• Government of Australia
• Government of Austria
• Government of Belgium
• Government of Canada
• Government of Denmark
• Government of France
• Government of Germany
• Government of The Netherlands
• Government of Norway
• Government of Sweden
• Government of Switzerland
• Government of United Kingdom
• European Commission
• Open Society Institute Landmines Project

^[1] The ICBL generally uses the short title, Mine Ban Treaty, although other short titles are common as well, including Ottawa Convention and Ottawa Treaty.
^[2] The reporting period for Landmine Monitor Report 2001 is May 2000 to May 2001. Editors have where possible added important information that arrived in June and July 2001.