Policy

The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 9 October 2001, and became a State Party on 1 April 2002. Algeria believes that existing national laws, including the penal code, are sufficient to deal with implementation and any violations of the Mine Ban Treaty.[1]

Algeria has attended most Meetings of States Parties, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. More recently Algeria attended the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the intersessional meetings in May 2019. Algeria has served on the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration (2012), the Committee on Cooperative Compliance (2015), and the Committee on the Enhancement of Cooperation (2017). Algeria served as president of the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties in 2013, as well as vice president in 2012, 2016, and 2018. Algeria has submitted its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report every year, most recently in 2019.

Algeria is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but is not party to Amended Protocol II on landmines or Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Algeria is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpile destruction

Algeria has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Algeria has reported importing mines and explosives from Italy, France, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, and China.[2] On 21 November 2005, Algeria completed the destruction of its stockpile of 150,050 antipersonnel mines.

In May 2010, Algeria wrote to the Monitor that no additional stockpiles of mines belonging to the armed forces had been discovered after completion of its stockpile destruction program.[3] Algeria’s previous Article 7 reports indicated that small numbers of antipersonnel mines were discovered by citizens or security personnel each year.[4] However, Algeria has not reported any new seizures of antipersonnel mines since February 2010. From 2006 to early 2010, Algeria revealed that it had seized a total of 3,119 antipersonnel mines which had been harvested from existing mined areas and used for illegal purposes.[5]

Mines retained for training

Algeria initially decided to retain 15,030 antipersonnel mines upon the completion of the destruction of its stockpile. After consuming just 90 mines in training, it announced in late 2008 that it would reduce the number of mines retained to a level of 6,000.[6] On 18 September 2017, Algeria destroyed the 5,970 antipersonnel mines it retained for training purposes after completing its landmine clearance program.[7]