DISARMAMENT: UNICEF Seeks OAU Backing on Landmines

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 1998 (IPS) - The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is teaming up with one of the world’s largest regional political bodies – the 53-member Organisation of African Unity (OAU) – to pressure African nations to ratify the anti-landmine treaty.

“We will be actively pursuing the ratification process in Africa,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said Thursday.

Bellamy said the issue of ratification is on the agenda of a meeting of OAU foreign ministers, scheduled Feb. 23-15 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The OAU is currently the largest single regional group at the United Nations ranking ahead of the Asian Group with 49 countries.

According to UNICEF, the greatest concentration of mines are in Africa and Asia. The three most heavily mined countries are Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia. Officially titled the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, the treaty was signed by 122 countries in Ottawa last December. But it can enter into legal force only after it receives 40 ratifications.

So far, only five state parties – Canada, Ireland, Mauritius, Turkmenistan and the Vatican – have ratified it. Some of the countries shying away from treaty include the United States, Russia, China, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan and North and South Korea.

With the cooperation of OAU, UNICEF is confident it can get 40 ratifications by the middle of this year. The agency already has instructed its representatives in 123 developing countries and 38 National Committees in industrial countries to persuade governments to ratify it and also it is is pressuring non- signatories to climb on board.

Bellamy said she will build on UNICEF’s past experiences to accelerate the ratification process. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was piloted by UNICEF, has been described as the fastest ratified human rights treaty in history. It was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly November 1989 and came into force 10 months later.

Bellamy said that during her recent trip to Africa she saw some of the after-effects of landmines in a continent still littered with the deadly weapons. In Angola, she discovered the large extent of land which were no longer available for any kind of living because of landmines.

Bellamy cited Angola as a country heavily mined both by different political groups and by neighbouring countries, including South Africa, the former Rhodesia (now Namibia), the Portuguese army and assorted groups of hired mercenaries who fought in the country’s civil war. UNICEF estimates there are about 10 million landmines in Angola alone.

“Landmines have had a devastating impact on African children,” she added, pointing out that there is one mine for every 12 children in the world.

UNICEF says that women and children make up at least 40 percent of all known mine casualties. Landmines kill or maim 26,000 innocent men, women and children each year.

Designated the lead agency within the U.N. system for landmine awareness and victim assistance programmes, UNICEF will be working closely with the U.N.’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) which has been entrusted with the primary responsibility to fight landmines.

UNICEF will also work with other U.N. bodies and also non- governmental organisations (NGOs), specifically the International Campaign against Landmines which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

In countries affected by landmines, UNICEF is supporting or cooperating in different types of programmes. Currently, it is active in 10 countries – Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Mozambique and Rwanda, and to a lesser extent, in Liberia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Yemen.

UNICEF uses a three-pronged approach in dealing with landmines- it uses advocacy; mine awareness and education; and support to rehabilitative services. The agency is providing mine-related information to teachers, and social and health workers.

In Bosnia-Hercegovina, UNICEF has distributed a special edition of comic books and accompanying posters on landmine awareness designed for children.