Mauritania
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 21 July 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 January 2001. Mauritania adopted national legislation including penal sanctions to implement the Mine Ban Treaty on 2 January 2008.[1] A national commission was set up to be responsible for the mine issue and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty in July 2002.[2]
Mauritania consistently attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it announced that it had completed its Article 5 mine clearance obligations.[3] Mauritania also attended the intersessional meetings of the treaty in May 2019. Mauritania consistently submits annual updated Article 7 transparency reports.
Mauritania is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Mauritania is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention
Mauritania has always reported that it has never manufactured antipersonnel mines. It is not known to have exported mines. Mauritania completed the destruction of its stockpile of 21,168 antipersonnel mines on 5 December 2004, ahead of its deadline of 1 January 2005.[4]
Mauritania initially intended to retain 5,728 mines for training purposes, but decided in 2004 to reduce the number to 728: 100 PMN mines, 161 Model 51 mines, and 467 MP mines. It has since reported the same number each year; no mines have been consumed in training activities from 2005 to 2019.
In 2009, Mauritania stated that it was looking at the possibility of gradually destroying the retained mines starting in 2010.[5] With respect to mines retained, in April 2007 Mauritania said that it agreed with the ICBL and others that the number of mines retained for training and development purposes should at most be in the hundreds or thousands.[6]
[1] Law No. 2008-06 Relative to the Prohibition of Antipersonnel Mines in Mauritania, 2 January 2008. The legislation bans the acquisition, manufacture, stockpiling, transfer, import, export, and use of antipersonnel mines. It provides penalties of one to three years’ imprisonment and fines of MRO100,000 to 1 million ($442 to 4,417) for violations. The law permits retention of mines for training and development, and sets conditions for implementing Article 8 of the Mine Ban Treaty on compliance.
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form A, 25 April 2005.
[3] Statement of Mauritania, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 29 November 2018.
[4] It destroyed 16,168 French-made APID 51 mines in 2001 and 2002, and destroyed the final 5,000 antipersonnel mines on 5 December 2004, including 1,738 Soviet PMN mines, 1,728 French Model 51 mines, and 1,533 “MP” mines, which are most likely Yugoslav PMA-3 mines. The quantities provided for each type of mine total 4,999, not 5,000. See, Landmine Monitor Report 2005, pp. 422–423.
[5] Statement of Mauritania, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 25 May 2009. Notes by the Monitor.
[6] Statement of Mauritania, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 27 April 2007. Notes by the Monitor. In May 2006, Mauritania called on other States Parties to reduce the number of mines retained as much as possible. Statement of Mauritania, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 12 May 2006. Notes by the Monitor.