109-470: Not to be confused with Ottawa Treaty or British Empire Economic Conference . Ottawa Declaration may refer to: The 1996 Ottawa Declaration that established the Arctic Council The 1974 NATO Ottawa Declaration on Atlantic Relations Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
218-413: A metal detector , prodding instrument and tripwire feeler. Deminers clear an area of vegetation and then divide it into lanes. A deminer advances along a lane, swinging a metal detector close to the ground. When metal is detected, the deminer prods the object with a stick or stainless steel probe to determine whether it is a mine. If a mine is found, it must be deactivated. Although conventional demining
327-424: A battery-powered controller. Despite advances in mine detection technology, "mine detection boils down to rows of nervous people wearing blast-resistant clothing and creeping laboriously across a field, prodding the ground ahead to check for buried objects." Often, especially when the soil is hard, they unwittingly apply too much force and risk detonating a mine. Prodders have been developed that provide feedback on
436-410: A bee can fly 3–5 kilometres before returning to the hive. However, tests using lidar (a laser scanning technique) have been promising. Bees do not fly at night, in heavy rain or wind, or in temperatures below 4 °C (39 °F), but the performance of dogs is also limited under these conditions. So far, most tests have been conducted in dry conditions in open terrain, so the effect of vegetation
545-482: A dead end in the CD. The proposal was however also opposed by Countries and NGO's supporting a total ban, because of their conviction that practical measures would be more conducive to a total ban than a Convention, A view which was reflected in the "purpose" of the 1996 Ottawa Conference: "to catalyze practical efforts to move toward a ban and to create partnerships essential to building the necessary political will to achieve
654-417: A detection probability of 97–99 percent and false positives of less than 1 percent. When targets were placed consisting of small amounts of 2.4-DNT mixed with sand, they detect vapor plumes from the source several meters away and follow them to the source. Bees make thousands of foraging flights per day, and over time high concentrations of bees occur over targets. The most challenging issue is tracking them when
763-673: A few days in soil, but an impurity, 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), lasts much longer and has a high vapor pressure. Thus, it is the primary target for chemical detection. However, the concentrations are very small, particularly in dry conditions. A reliable vapor detection system needs to detect 10 grams of 2,4-DNT per millilitre of air in very dry soil or 10 grams per millilitre in moist soil. Biological detectors are very effective, but some chemical sensors are being developed. Honey bees can be used to locate mines in two ways: passive sampling and active detection. In passive sampling, their mop-like hairs, which are electrostatically charged, collect
872-511: A given area to a specified depth. As of 2017, antipersonnel mines are known to contaminate 61 states and suspected in another 10. The most heavily contaminated (with more than 100 square kilometres of minefield each) are Afghanistan , Angola , Azerbaijan , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Cambodia , Chad , Iraq , Thailand , Turkey , and Ukraine . Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty are required to clear all mines within 10 years of joining
981-419: A global ban on AP mines." But this meant in fact, that a total ban was postponed to a remote future: until practical efforts may have convinced one day Countries depending on APMs for their defense, that APMs are useless or counterproductive. The approach of Werner Ehrlich was different: It was essential to delegitimize as soon as possible any use of APMs by the adoption of an instrument of international law on
1090-425: A high of 23 in 2002 and 2003 to a low of 17 in 2010, 2005 and 2006. The group of states that could be described as most concerned about the security implications of the Mine Ban Treaty are the 15 states not party that have voted against consecutive resolutions since 1997: Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Libya (since 1998), Myanmar, North Korea (since 2007), Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Syria, Uzbekistan (since 1999),
1199-447: A landmine, a rock and soil. Unlike metal detectors, GPR devices can detect nonmetallic mine casings. However, radio waves have wavelengths that are comparable to the dimensions of landmines, so the images have low resolution. The wavelength can be varied; smaller wavelengths give better image quality but cannot penetrate as far into the soil. This tradeoff in performance depends on soil properties and other environmental factors as well as
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#17327726926231308-461: A lot. Methods that use collimators to narrow the beams are not suitable for demining because the collimators are heavy and high-power sources are required. The alternative is to use wide beams and deconvolve the signal using spatial filters. The medical industry has driven improvements in x-ray technology, so portable x-ray generators are available. In principle, the short wavelength would allow high-resolution images, but it may take too long because
1417-426: A mine field so it is more acceptable if some mines are missed in the process. Humanitarian demining aims to reduce risk for deminers and civilians as much as possible by removing (ideally) all landmines and demining work can usually be temporarily halted if unfavorable circumstances arise. In some situations, it is a necessary precondition for other humanitarian programs. Normally, a national mine action authority (NMAA)
1526-610: A questionnaire sent to Finnish parliamentary groups by a consortium of local newspapers Uutissuomalainen earlier during the invasion and published on 1 March 2022, the Finns Party (as well as its splinter group Power Belongs to the People ), Christian Democrats and Movement Now supported resignation from the treaty, the National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party and Left Alliance being undecided on
1635-411: A receiver coil, and the resulting changes in electric potential can be used to detect metal objects. Similar devices are used by hobbyists. Nearly all mines contain enough metal to be detectable. No detector finds all mines, and the performance depends on factors such as the soil, type of mine and depth of burial. An international study in 2001 found that the most effective detector found 91 percent of
1744-538: A result, ratification has been far from universal, and many of the states that do not currently intend to ratify the treaty possess large stockpiles of anti-personnel mines. So far 35 countries have not signed the treaty; nonsignatories include the United States, Russia, China, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, Cuba, Egypt, India, Israel, and Iran. In Finland, the National Coalition Party and
1853-434: A result, the soil overhead tends to heat faster during the day and cool faster at night. Thermography uses infrared sensors to detect anomalies in the heating and cooling cycle. The effect can be enhanced using a heat source. The act of burying a mine also affects the soil properties, with small particles tending to collect near the surface. This tends to suppress the frequency-dependent characteristics that are evident in
1962-402: A safe path for troops and equipment. The soldiers who carry out this task are known as combat engineers , sappers , or pioneers . Sometimes soldiers may bypass a minefield, but some bypasses are designed to concentrate advancing troops into a killing zone. If engineers need to clear a path (an operation known as breaching ), they may be under heavy fire and need supporting fire to suppress
2071-861: A small number for training purposes ( mine-clearance , detection, etc.). Within ten years after ratifying the treaty, the country should have cleared all of its mined areas. This is a difficult task for many countries, but at the annual meetings of the States Parties they may request an extension and assistance. The treaty also calls on States Parties to provide assistance to mine-affected persons in their own country and to provide assistance to other countries in meeting their treaty obligations. The treaty covers only anti-personnel mines; it does not address mixed mines, anti-tank mines , remote-controlled claymore mines , anti-handling devices ( booby traps ), and other "static" explosive devices. Signatory nations have destroyed more than 48 million stockpiled mines since
2180-418: A total ban could block the project immediately, e. g. simply by denying consensus to put it on the agenda. Demining Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By contrast, the goal of humanitarian demining
2289-510: A total ban of APMs because of their military necessities had an interest to prevent any negotiations on a total ban and in particular in free standing negotiations as proposed by Austria. The smart way to achieve this aim was to insist on holding the relevant negotiations in the framework of the competent forum of the UN for disarmament negotiations, the Conference on Disarmament (CD). The catch
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#17327726926232398-492: A total ban of APMs, because it would not only bind the Parties to the convention but would also have at least a moral effect on Countries not Parties by clearly contradicting the idea that the use of APMs is legal. It was also essential to elaborate this Treaty in a free standing negotiating process outside the Conference on Disarmament (CD), as there mine-affected Countries not Members of the CD would be excluded and opponents of
2507-496: A variety of particles including chemicals leaking from explosives. The chemicals are also present in water that they bring back and air that they breathe. Methods such as solid phase microextraction , sorbent sol-gels , gas chromatography and mass spectrometry can be used to identify explosive chemicals in the hive. Honey bees can also be trained, in 1–2 days, to associate the smell of an explosive with food. In field trials, they detected concentrations of parts per trillion with
2616-498: Is a dangerous activity, and personal protective equipment does not protect against all types of landmine. Once found, mines are generally defused or blown up with more explosives, but it is possible to destroy them with certain chemicals or extreme heat without making them explode. Land mines overlap with other categories of explosive devices, including unexploded ordnance (UXOs), booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In particular, most mines are factory-built, but
2725-456: Is a large uncertainty in the total number and the area affected. Records by armed forces are often incomplete or nonexistent, and many mines were dropped by airplane. Various natural events such as floods can move mines around and new mines continue to be laid. When minefields are cleared, the actual number of mines tends to be far smaller than the initial estimate; for example, early estimates for Mozambique were several million, but after most of
2834-531: Is a more comprehensive humanitarian measure than the Ottawa Convention. All US landmines now self-destruct in two days or less, in most cases four hours. While the self-destruct mechanism has never failed in more than 65,000 random tests, if self-destruct were to fail the mine will self-deactivate because its battery will run down in two weeks or less. That compares with persistent anti-vehicle mines which remain lethal for about 30 years and are legal under
2943-405: Is an accident for every 1000–2000 mines cleared. 35 percent of the accidents occur during mine excavation and 24 percent result from missed mines. Mine layers often use anti-demining techniques, including anti-lift devices, booby traps and two or three mines placed on top of each other. Anti-personnel mines are often triggered by tripwires. In World War II , the primary method of locating mines
3052-463: Is between $ 300 and $ 1000. However, such estimates may be misleading. The cost of clearance can vary considerably since it depends on the terrain, the ground cover (dense foliage makes it more difficult) and the method; and some areas that are checked for mines turn out to have none. Although the Mine Ban Treaty gives each state the primary responsibility to clear its own mines, other states that can help are required to do so. In 2016, 31 donors (led by
3161-524: Is given the primary responsibility for mine action, which it manages through a mine action center (MAC). This coordinates the efforts of other players including government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), commercial companies, and militaries. The International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) provide a framework for mine action. While not legally binding in themselves, they are intended as guidelines for countries to develop their own standards. The IMAS also draw on international treaties including
3270-429: Is needed and seek any assistance they may require. A recurrent opportunity for States to indicate their support for the ban on antipersonnel mines is their vote on the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. UNGA Resolution 66/29, for example, was adopted on 2 December 2011 by a vote of 162 in favor, none opposed, and 18 abstentions. Since
3379-808: Is needed in the country where the dog is deployed to accustom the dog to its handler, the soil and climate, and the type of explosives. MDDs were first deployed in WWII. They have been extensively used in Afghanistan, which still has one of the largest programs. Over 900 are used in 24 countries. Their preferred role is for verifying that an area is cleared and narrowing down the region to be searched. They are also used in Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST). This involves collecting air samples from stretches of land about 100 meters long and having dogs or rats sniff them to determine whether
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3488-662: Is not known. Tests have commenced in real minefields in Croatia and the results are promising, although after about three days the bees must be retrained because they are not getting food rewards from the mines. Like dogs, giant pouched rats are being trained to sniff out chemicals like TNT in landmines. A Belgian NGO, APOPO , trains rats in Tanzania at a cost of $ 6000 per rat. These rats, nicknamed " HeroRATS ", have been deployed in Mozambique and Cambodia. APOPO credits
3597-622: Is not widely used for demining. GPR can be used with a metal detector and data-fusion algorithms to greatly reduce the false alarms generated by metallic clutter. One such dual-sensor device, the Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS) became the standard mine detector of the U.S. Army in 2006. For humanitarian demining, it was tested in Cambodia for a variety of soil conditions and mine types, detecting 5,610 mines and correctly identifying 96.5% of
3706-503: Is sifted and inspected. It can also be fed through an industrial rock crusher, which is robust enough to withstand blasts from antipersonnel mines. Excavation is a reliable way of clearing an area to a depth that other mechanical systems cannot reach, and it has been used in several countries. In particular, the HALO Trust estimates that their excavation program destroys mines about 7 times faster than manual deminers. A 2004 study by
3815-469: Is slow (5–150 square metres cleared per day), it is reliable, so it is still the most commonly used method. Integration with other methods such as explosive sniffing dogs can increase its reliability. Demining is a dangerous occupation. If a deminer prods a mine too hard or fails to detect it, the deminer can suffer injury or death, and the large number of false positives from metal detectors can make deminers tired and careless. According to one report, there
3924-422: Is supplemented by technical survey , where potentially hazardous areas are physically explored to improve knowledge of their boundaries. A good survey can greatly reduce the time required to clear an area; in one study of 15 countries, less than 3 percent of the area cleared actually contained mines. By one United Nations estimate, the cost to produce a landmine is between $ 3 and $ 75 while the cost of removing it
4033-404: Is that the CD had many years previously become a dead end, because of fundamental disagreements among Member States on its agenda and because of the rule of consensus giving each member de facto the right of veto. Besides ceasing the production and development of anti-personnel mines, a party to the treaty must destroy its stockpile of anti-personnel mines within four years, although it may retain
4142-503: Is to remove all of the landmines to a given depth and make the land safe for human use. Specially trained dogs are also used to narrow down the search and verify that an area is cleared. Mechanical devices such as flails and excavators are sometimes used to clear mines. A great variety of methods for detecting landmines have been studied. These include electromagnetic methods, one of which ( ground penetrating radar ) has been employed in tandem with metal detectors. Acoustic methods can sense
4251-589: Is too high a density of mines. The detection rate is also variable, so the International Mine Action Standards require an area to be covered by two dogs before it can be declared safe. Preferred breeds for MDDs are the German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois , although some Labrador Retrievers and Beagles are used. They cost about $ 10,000 each to train. This cost includes 8–10 weeks of initial training. Another 8–10 weeks
4360-404: Is well developed and the main challenge is to process and interpret the images. The algorithms are underdeveloped and have trouble coping with the extreme dependence of performance on environmental conditions. Many of the surface effects are strongest just after the mine is buried and are soon removed by weathering. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) maps out the electrical conductivity of
4469-586: The Casspir , serve a similar purpose. However, those used in humanitarian demining cannot withstand the blast from an anti-tank mine, so their use must be preceded by careful surveying. Unlike flails and tillers, they only destroy functioning mines, and even those do not always explode. Excavation, the removal of soil to a given depth, is done using modified construction vehicles such as bulldozers , excavators , front-end loaders , tractors and soil sifters. Armor plates and reinforced glass are added. Removed soil
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4578-553: The Caterpillar D9 (Israel). Improvised techniques are sometimes used by people who need the use of land before formal demining. In parts of Ukraine mined during fighting associated with the Russian invasion that started in 2022, farmers who need to use the land improvised a mine-clearing machine by welding parts of rugged abandoned Russian fighting vehicles such as tanks on to an old tractor and harrow, remotely controlled by
4687-759: The Falkland Islands were removed by 2020. The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor ("the Monitor") is an initiative providing research for the ICBL and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), and acting as their de facto monitoring regime. As an initiative of ICBL which was founded in 1998 through Human Rights Watch, the Monitor gives monitoring on the humanitarian development and uses of landmines, cluster munitions, and explosive remnants of war (ERW). It provides reports on all aspects of
4796-728: The Finns Party proposed withdrawing from the treaty. The stance is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Defence report from 2003, which sees landmines as an effective weapon against a mechanised invasion force. In early 2018, an MP from the National Coalition Party started a citizens' initiative to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty. Also, the Minister of Defence Jussi Niinistö ( Blue Reform ; formerly Finns Party prior to its split) has been supporting withdrawal from
4905-611: The International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its founding coordinator, Jody Williams , were instrumental in the passage of the Ottawa Treaty, and for these efforts they jointly received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize . However, since efforts to secure the treaty started over a decade before Williams involvement and the fact that the treaty was a joint effort of so many people from all over the world, including hundreds of influential political and private leaders, some felt that Williams should decline to personally benefit from
5014-609: The Mine Ban Treaty , which has provisions for destroying stockpiles and clearing minefields. In the 1990s, before the IMAS, the United Nations required that deminers had to clear 99.6% of all mines and explosive ordnance. However, professional deminers found that unacceptably lax because they would be responsible if any mines later harmed civilians. In contrast, the IMAS call for the clearance of all mines and UXOs from
5123-402: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , Ukraine has become the first party of the treaty to violate it. In the war, Russia has also used landmines forbidden in the treaty, but it has not signed the treaty. Annual meetings of the treaty member states are held at different locations around the world. These meetings provide a forum to report on what has been accomplished, indicate where additional work
5232-471: The Rwandan Ministry of Defence 's own announcement of the completion of the demining process on 29 November 2009. Under Article 5 of the Ottawa Treaty, Rwanda was requested to become mine-free by 1 December 2010. On 18 June 2010, Nicaragua was declared free of landmines. Two more countries became free of landmines in 2011. On 14 June 2011, Nepal was declared a landmine-free zone, making it
5341-477: The Second Battle of El Alamein . Although metal detectors have become much lighter, more sensitive and easier to operate than the early models, the basic principle is still electromagnetic induction . Current through a wire coil produces a time-varying magnetic field that in turn induces currents in conductive objects in the ground. In turn, these currents generate a magnetic field that induces currents in
5450-662: The CCM. In theory, mines could be replaced by manually triggered Claymore mines , but this requires the posting of a sentry. Opponents point out that the Ottawa Convention places no restriction whatsoever on anti-vehicle mines which kill civilians on tractors, on school buses, etc. The position of the United States is that the inhumane nature of landmines stems not from whether they are anti-personnel as opposed to anti-vehicle but from their persistence. The United States has unilaterally committed to never using persistent landmines of any kind, whether anti-personnel or anti-vehicle, which they say
5559-592: The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining concluded that the data on the performance of mechanical demining systems was poor, and perhaps as a result, they were not being used as the primary clearance system (with the exception of excavators). However, by 2014, confidence in these systems had increased to the point where some deminers were using them as primary clearance systems. Mechanical demining techniques have some challenges. In steep, undulating terrain they may skip over some of
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#17327726926235668-530: The Ottawa Convention. Little progress in actual reduction of mine usage has been achieved. In 2011, the number of landmines dispersed is higher than ever since 2004, landmines being dispersed in Libya, Syria, and Myanmar. Turkey reported that between 1957 and 1998, Turkish forces laid 615,419 antipersonnel mines along the Syrian border "to prevent illegal border crossings". These mines are killing Syrians stuck on
5777-743: The Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty , the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention , or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty , aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (APLs) around the world. By August 2022, 164 states had ratified or acceded to the treaty . Major powers, which are also past and current manufacturers of landmines, are not parties to
5886-776: The Treaty. At the November–December 2009 Cartagena Summit for a Mine-Free World, Albania, Greece, Rwanda, and Zambia were also declared mine-free. On 2 December 2009, Rwanda was declared free of landmines . It followed a three-year campaign by 180 Rwandan soldiers, supervised by the Mine Awareness Trust and trained in Kenya , to remove over 9,000 mines laid in the country between 1990 and 1994. The soldiers checked and cleared 1.3 square km of land in twenty minefields. The official Cartagena Summit announcement came after
5995-636: The US – by proposing a new approach: To replace the Draft Convention by a new text, composed of a "Chapeau-Convention", containing generalities only, and four annexed protocols, each one dealing with one of the main prohibitions: production, stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel mines. This approach would allow some additional countries to join the process but at the price of allowing them to pick and choose only those prohibitions compatible with their military needs. This concept, which would keep only
6104-479: The United Arab Emirates); 10 that consistently abstained or were absent previously now vote in favor (Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Marshall Islands, Micronesia FS, Mongolia, Morocco, and Tonga). Somalia, now a State Party, was absent from the 2011 resolution, but has voted in favor in previous years. The number of states abstaining from supporting the resolution has ranged from
6213-611: The United Nations cannot". Criticism from academics, security officials, and diplomats is based on both the political process and the substance. The campaign for what became the Ottawa Treaty was led by a group of powerful non-governmental organizations, and instead of working within existing multilateral frameworks, including the Conference on Disarmament , based at the UN compound in Geneva (the Palais des Nations ), an ad hoc framework
6322-559: The United States with $ 152.1 million and the European Union with $ 73.8 million) contributed a total of $ 479.5 million to mine action , of which $ 343.2 million went to clearance and risk education. The top 5 recipient states (Iraq, Afghanistan, Croatia , Cambodia and Laos ) received 54% of this support. The conventional method of landmine detection was developed in World War II and has changed little since then. It involves
6431-613: The United States, and Russia. In 2014, the United States declared that it will abide by the terms of the Treaty, except for landmines used on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea, like North Korea, has not signed the treaty, believing the use of landmines to be crucial to the defense of their territory against the other. Pope Francis has described the Ottawa Process as an example of where the organisations of " civil society " are "capable of creating effective dynamics that
6540-556: The United States, and Vietnam (since 1998). The Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mines Treaty would not likely have been possible without the sustained effort of thousands of global citizens writing their elected officials in the lead up to the treaty's creation and signing in 1997. A small number of core groups mobilized on the landmines problem worked closely with a wider variety of NGOs, including churches, prominent children's and women's rights groups, disarmament and development groups, in order to produce concerted political pressure, as well as with
6649-485: The amount of force. Universities, corporations and government bodies have been developing a great variety of methods for detecting mines. However, it is difficult to compare their performance. One quantitative measure is a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which measures the tradeoff between false positives and false negatives. Ideally, there should be a high probability of detection with few false positives, but such curves have not been obtained for most of
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#17327726926236758-432: The appearance of a total ban treaty, would risk creating a confusing situation of varying legal situations, and would, in the first place, postpone a real comprehensive total ban, potentially indefinitely. This proposal did however not materialise as the US rebuffed the idea, believing that they could steer the negotiations into the Conference on Disarmament where it would be subject to the consensus rule. Countries opposing
6867-507: The area needs clearing. Mechanical demining makes use of vehicles with devices such as tillers, flails , rollers , and excavation. Used for military operations as far back as World War I , they were initially "cumbersome, unreliable and under-powered", but have been improved with additional armor, safer cabin designs, reliable power trains , Global Positioning System logging systems and remote control . They are now primarily used in humanitarian demining for technical surveys, to prepare
6976-402: The authoritative international instrument governing the responsible use of anti-personnel land-mines and related devices. [operative paragraph 4] Encourages further international efforts to seek solutions to the problems caused by anti-personnel-mines, with a view to their eventual elimination [operative paragraph 6]. Also encourages further immediate international efforts to seek solutions to
7085-414: The award of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Williams herself has said she feels the organization deserved the award while she did not, and emphasized the collective nature of the movement; as the chair of a group of female Peace Prize recipients, she has used her status as a Peace Prize recipient to bring concerns of woman-led grassroots organizations to the attention of governments. Available sources such as
7194-429: The best chemical detectors. Well-trained mine-detection dogs (MDDs) can sniff out explosive chemicals like TNT , monofilament lines used in tripwires , and metallic wire used in booby traps and mines. The area they can clear ranges from a few hundred to a thousand meters per day, depending on several factors. In particular, an unfavorable climate or thick vegetation can impede them, and they can get confused if there
7303-489: The border or trying to cross near Kobanî . Turkey is required under the treaty to destroy all antipersonnel mines, but has missed deadlines. Human Rights Watch claims in its report that as of 18 November 2014, over 2,000 civilians were still in the Tel Shair corridor section of the mine belt because Turkey had been refusing entry for cars or livestock, and the refugees did not want to leave behind their belongings. During
7412-579: The casualties were suffered by civilians (42% by children), 20% by military and security personnel and 2% by deminers. There are two main categories of land mine: anti-tank and anti-personnel . Anti-tank mines are designed to damage tanks or other vehicles; they are usually larger and require at least 100 kilograms (220 lb) of force to trigger, so infantry will not set them off. Anti-personnel mines are designed to maim or kill soldiers. There are over 350 types, but they come in two main groups: blast and fragmentation . Blast mines are buried close to
7521-473: The cavity created by mine casings. Sensors have been developed to detect vapor leaking from landmines. Animals such as rats and mongooses can safely move over a minefield and detect mines, and animals can also be used to screen air samples over potential minefields. Bees, plants, and bacteria are also potentially useful. Explosives in landmines can also be detected directly using nuclear quadrupole resonance and neutron probes . Detection and removal of landmines
7630-472: The clearing had been done only 140,000 mines had been found. Thus, it may be more accurate to say that there are millions of landmines, not tens of millions. Before minefields can be cleared, they need to be located. This begins with non-technical survey , gathering records of mine placement and accidents from mines, interviewing former combatants and locals, noting locations of warning signs and unused agricultural land, and going to look at possible sites. This
7739-673: The clutter. Another dual detector developed by ERA Technology , the Cobham VMR3 Minehound, had similar success in Bosnia, Cambodia and Angola. These dual-sensor devices are relatively light and cheap, and the HALO Trust has begun to deploy more of them around the world. Soil absorbs radiation from the Sun and is heated, with a resulting change in the infrared radiation that it emits. Landmines are better insulators than soil. As
7848-496: The definition of landmine can include "artisanal" (improvised) mines. Thus, the United Nations Mine Action Service includes mitigation of IEDs in its mission. Injuries from IEDs are much more serious, but factory-built landmines are longer lasting and often more plentiful. Over 1999–2016, yearly casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance have varied between 9,228 and 3,450. In 2016, 78% of
7957-410: The electrodes must be planted in the ground, which risks setting off a mine, and it can only detect mines near the surface. In X-ray backscatter , an area is irradiated with X-rays (photons with wavelengths between 0.01 and 10 nanometres ) and detecting the photons that are reflected back. Metals strongly absorb x-rays and little is reflected back, while organic materials absorb little and reflect
8066-443: The enemy or obscure the site with smoke . Some risk of casualties is accepted, but engineers under heavy fire may need to clear an obstacle in 7–10 minutes to avoid excessive casualties, so manual breaching may be too slow. They may need to operate in bad weather or at night. Good intelligence is needed on factors like the locations of minefields, types of mines and how they were laid, their density and pattern, ground conditions and
8175-516: The first UNGA resolution supporting the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, the number of states voting in favor has ranged from a low of 139 in 1999 to a high of 165 in 2010. The number of states abstaining has ranged from a high of 23 in 2002 and 2003 to a low of 17 in 2005 and 2006. Of the 19 states not party that voted in support of Resolution 66/29 on 2 December 2011, nine have voted in favor of every Mine Ban Treaty resolution since 1997 (Armenia, Bahrain, Finland, Georgia, Oman, Poland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and
8284-399: The ground (removing vegetation and tripwires), and to detonate explosives. Tiller systems consist of a heavy drum fitted with teeth or bits that are intended to destroy or detonate mines to a given depth. However, mines can be forced downwards or collected in a "bow wave" in front of the roller. They have trouble with steep slopes, wet conditions and large stones; light vegetation improves
8393-1070: The ground before detonating. Their size varies and they are mostly metal, so they are easily detected by metal detectors. However, they are normally activated by tripwires that can extend up to 20 metres away from the mine, so tripwire detection is essential. The casing of blast mines may be made of metal, wood, or plastic. Some mines, referred to as minimum metal mines , are constructed with as little metal as possible – as little as 1 gram (0.035 oz) – to make them difficult to detect. Common explosives used in land mines include TNT ( C 7 H 5 N 3 O 6 ), RDX ( C 3 H 6 N 6 O 6 ), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN, O 12 N 8 C 4 H 8 ), HMX ( O 8 N 8 C 4 H 8 ) and ammonium nitrate ( NH 4 NO 3 ). Land mines are found in about 60 countries. Deminers must cope with environments that include deserts, jungles, and urban environments. Antitank mines are buried deeply while antipersonnel mines are usually within 6 inches of
8502-406: The ground using a two-dimensional grid of electrodes. Pairs of electrodes receive a small current and the resulting voltages measured on the remaining electrodes. The data are analyzed to construct a map of the conductivity. Both metallic and non-metallic mines will show up as anomalies. Unlike most other methods, EIT works best in wet conditions, so it serves as a useful complement to them. However,
8611-507: The ground. Operators can be endangered by defective mines or mines with delay charges that detonate after the blast shield has passed over; shaped charge mines that are capable of piercing most armor; and intelligent mines that are off to the side and use a variety of sensors to decide when to fire a rocket at an armored vehicle. One answer is to use remote controlled vehicles such as the Caterpillar D7 MCAP (United States) and
8720-426: The intensity must be kept low to limit exposure of humans to the radiation. Also, only mines less than 10 centimetres deep would be imaged. A buried mine will almost always leak explosives through the casing. 95 percent of this will be adsorbed by the soil, but the other 5 percent will mostly dissolve in water and be transported away. If it gets to the surface, it leaves a chemical signature. TNT biodegrades within
8829-516: The landmine, cluster munitions, and ERW issues. It issues annual report updates on all countries in the world, keeps an international network with experts, provides research findings for all mediums, and remains flexible to adapt its reports to any changes. The Monitor has earned respect with its transparency whose states must be provided under the relevant treaties for independent reporting. Its main audiences are not only governments, NGOs, and other international organizations, but also media, academics and
8938-448: The larger particles. Hyperspectral imaging , which senses dozens of frequency bands ranging from visible light to long-wave infrared , can detect this effect. Finally, polarized light reflecting off man-made materials tend to remain polarized while natural materials depolarize it; the difference can be seen using a polarimeter . The above methods can be used from a safe distance, including on airborne platforms. The detector technology
9047-517: The media to keep the issue in the forefront. Because of this unparalleled involvement of the global public, and their success in lobbying for this initiative, university political science and law departments frequently study the socio-historical initiatives that led to the Ottawa process, arguing it is a leading modern example of the power of peaceful democratic expression and a method for mobilization on disarmament issues or more broadly. The organization
9156-780: The past. Canada retains mines for training, and also continues to make and use the "C19 Detonated Weapon" in combat. The latter does not qualify as a landmine under the treaty because it is fired by a person and not by a pressure plate. Through 2015, 29 countries had cleared all known mined areas from their territory: Albania , Bhutan , Bulgaria , Burundi , Republic of the Congo , Costa Rica , Denmark, Djibouti , France, Gambia , Germany, Guinea-Bissau , Greece, Guatemala , Honduras , Hungary , Jordan , Malawi , Mozambique , Nicaragua , Nigeria , North Macedonia , Rwanda , Suriname , Swaziland , Tunisia , Uganda , and Venezuela . El Salvador finished clearing its landmines before joining
9265-742: The performance, but thicker vegetation inhibits it. Flails, first used on Sherman tanks , have an extended arm with a rotating drum to which are attached chains with weights on the end. The chains act like swinging hammers. The strike force is enough to set off mines, smash them to pieces, damage the firing mechanism or throw the mine up. A blast shield protects the driver and the cabin is designed to deflect projectiles. Mine flail effectiveness can approach 100% in ideal conditions, but clearance rates as low as 50–60% have been reported. First used in World War I with tanks, rollers are designed to detonate mines; blast-resistant vehicles with steel wheels, such as
9374-411: The problems caused by anti-personnel land-mines, with a view to the eventual elimination of anti-personnel land-mines [operative paragraph 6]. A major threat to the project of a Total ban Convention as endorsed by the 1996 Ottawa Conference was the danger of being watered down. One example was the well-intended attempt made by Canada to win the support of Countries opposed to a total ban – in particular
9483-425: The properties of the mines. In particular, attenuation in wet soils can make it difficult to spot mines deeper than 4 centimetres (1.6 inches), while low-frequency radar will "bounce" off small plastic mines near the surface. Although GPR is a mature technology for other applications such as searching for archaeological artifacts, the effect of those factors on mine detection is still not adequately understood, and GPR
9592-549: The proposed unorthodox procedure – to negotiate this Convention outside the Conference on Disarmament (CD) – adopted by the Ottawa Conference in October 1996 – in spite of nearly universal opposition. It was an uphill struggle. This proposal was understandably rejected by countries which see anti-personnel mines as essential for national defense. Consequently, they tried repeatedly to block the project or to steer it to
9701-490: The psychological effect of mines increases the threshold to attack and thus reduces the risk of war. The Ottawa Treaty does not cover all types of unexploded ordnance. Cluster bombs , for example, introduce the same problem as mines: unexploded bomblets can remain a hazard for civilians long after a conflict has ended. A separate Convention on Cluster Munitions was drafted in 2008 and was adopted and entered into force in 2010. As of February 2022, there are 110 state parties of
9810-497: The public. The Convention gained 122 country signatures when it opened for signing on 3 December 1997 in Ottawa, Canada. Currently, there are 164 States Parties to the Treaty. Thirty-two countries have not signed the treaty and one more has signed but did not ratify. The states that have not signed the treaty includes a majority of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council : China,
9919-467: The question, while the Centre Party , Green League and Swedish People's Party on the side of supporting staying in the treaty. The President of Finland Sauli Niinistö also commented that "there would be use for anti-personnel mines", and former Chief of Defence Gustav Hägglund considered joining the treaty "a grave mistake". In the same continuum, another citizens' initiative to resign from
10028-576: The second country to be landmine-free in Asia. In December 2011, Burundi was declared landmine free. On 5 December 2012 at the 12th Meeting of the States Parties, six states declared themselves landmine-free. These were the Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan, and Uganda. On 17 September 2015, Mozambique was declared free of land mines after the last of some nearly 171,000 had been cleared over 20 years. The last land mines in
10137-424: The sensitivity, the more false positives. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre found that, over a six-year period, 99.6 percent of the time (a total of 23 million hours) was spent digging up scrap. Dogs have been used in demining since World War II. They are up to a million times more sensitive to chemicals than humans, but their true capability is unknown because they can sense explosives at lower concentrations than
10246-525: The size and location of enemy defenses. Humanitarian demining is a component of mine action , a broad effort to reduce the social, economic and environmental damage of mines. The other "pillars" of mine action are risk education, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, and advocacy against the use of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions . Humanitarian demining differs from military demining in several ways. Military demining operations require speed and reliability under combat conditions to safely bypass
10355-666: The study on the Ottawa Treaty made by Stuart Maslen and an article published by Werner Ehrlich in 1996 indicate that the key figure in the making of the Ottawa Treaty was the Austrian diplomat Werner Ehrlich, head of the Disarmament Unit at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1995/96: He initiated the process by making the first draft of the future Treaty in April 1996 and succeeded to get this project and
10464-497: The surface and triggered by pressure. A weight between 4 and 24 pounds (1.8 and 10.9 kg), the weight of a small child, is usually enough to set one off. They are usually cylindrical with a diameter of 2–4 inches (5.1–10.2 cm) and a height of 1.3–3.0 inches (3.3–7.6 cm). Fragmentation mines are designed to explode outwards resulting in casualties as much as 100 metres away. A subtype of fragmentation mines called "bounding" mines are specifically designed to launch upward off
10573-408: The surface. Mines may be placed by hand or scattered from airplanes, in regular or irregular patterns. In urban environments, fragments of destroyed buildings may hide them; in rural environments, soil erosion may cover them or displace them. Detectors can be confused by high-metal soils and junk. Thus, demining presents a considerable engineering challenge. In military demining, the goal is to create
10682-408: The technologies. Also, even if field tests were available for all technologies, they may not be comparable because performance depends on a myriad of factors, including the size, shape and composition of the mines; their depth and orientation; the type of explosive; environmental conditions; and performance of human operators. Most field tests have taken place in conditions that favor the performance of
10791-446: The technology, leading to overestimates of their performance. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) probes the ground using radar . A GPR device emits radio waves ; these waves are reflected at discontinuities in permittivity and one or more antennae pick up the return signal. The signal is analyzed to determine the shapes and locations of the reflectors. Discontinuities occur between materials with different dielectric constants such as
10900-474: The terrain is soft (e.g., sandy beaches); the deminer is further away from the mine and the rake can be used to either prod or scoop up mines from beneath. Metal detectors used by deminers work on the same principles as detectors used in World War I and refined during World War II. A practical design by Polish officer Józef Kosacki , known as the Polish mine detector , was used to clear German mine fields during
11009-414: The test mines in clay soil but only 71 percent in iron-rich soil. The worst detector found only 11 percent even in clay soils. The results can be improved by multiple passes. An even greater problem is the number of false positives . Minefields contain many other fragments of metal, including shrapnel , bullet casings, and metallic minerals. 100–1000 such objects are found for every real mine. The greater
11118-487: The title Ottawa Declaration . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ottawa_Declaration&oldid=1208799216 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ottawa Treaty The Convention on
11227-695: The treaty's entry into force on 1 March 1999. One hundred and fifty-nine (159) countries have completed the destruction of their stockpiles or declared that they did not possess stockpiles to destroy. Article 3 of the treaty permits countries to retain landmines for use in training in mine detection, mine clearance, or mine destruction techniques. 72 countries have taken this option. Of this group, 26 States Parties retain fewer than 1,000 mines. Only two have retained more than 10,000 mines: Turkey (15,100) and Bangladesh (12,500). A total of 83 States Parties have declared that they do not retain any antipersonnel mines, including 27 states that stockpiled antipersonnel mines in
11336-696: The treaty, left on 24 February 2022, gathered the required 50,000 signatures by 6 March 2022, and will proceed to the Parliament. Ukraine has also signaled that it might have to withdraw from the treaty due to military necessity. Opponents of banning anti-personnel mines give several reasons, among them that mines are a cheap and therefore cost-effective area denial weapon . Opponents claim that when used correctly, anti-personnel mines are defensive weapons that harm only attackers, unlike ranged weapons such as ballistic missiles that are most effective if used for preemptive attacks. Furthermore, opponents claim that
11445-421: The treaty, and as of 2017, 28 countries had succeeded. However, several countries were not on track to meet their deadline or had requested extensions. A 2003 RAND Corporation report estimated that there are 45–50 million mines and 100,000 are cleared each year, so at present rates it would take about 500 years to clear them all. Another 1.9 million (19 more years of clearance) are added each year. However, there
11554-617: The treaty, saying that he "wants to rip it in half". Since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the debate sparked up again in Finland, when the chairmans of the National Coalition Party Petteri Orpo and Finns Party Riikka Purra viewed joining the treaty as a mistake in a panel of the Finnish national broadcaster Yle on 1 March 2022, wanting to resign from the treaty. According to
11663-750: The treaty. These include the United States , China , and Russia . Other non-signatories include India and Pakistan . Recognizing that States can move effectively towards the ultimate goal of the eventual elimination of anti-personnel land-mines as viable and humane alternatives are developed. Emphasizes the importance of the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects and its Protocols as
11772-407: Was by prodding the ground with a pointed stick or bayonet. Modern tools for prodding range from a military prodder to a screwdriver or makeshift object. They are inserted at shallow angles (30 degrees or less) to probe the sides of potential mines, avoiding the triggering mechanism that is usually on top. This method requires the deminer's head and hands to be near the mine. Rakes may also be used when
11881-444: Was created that detoured around existing intergovernmental processes. Critics alleged that this represented a challenge to the sovereignty and responsibility of nation states for the defense of their citizens. Substantively, critics view the treaty as naive and idealistic, in attempting to erase the reality of security threats that lead armies and defense forces to rely on landmines for protection against invasion and terror attacks. As
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