The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that weakening support for a global landmine ban threatens civilian lives and humanitarian gains.
“The global consensus that once made anti-personnel mines a symbol of inhumanity is starting to fracture,” said ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric in a statement ahead of the intersessional meetings of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC), which began in Geneva on June 17.
“States that once championed disarmament are now considering withdrawing from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. This is not just a legal retreat on paper—it risks endangering countless lives and reversing decades of hard-fought humanitarian progress,” she said.
Spoljaric recalled that the ICRC began sounding the alarm in the late 1980s, when its medical teams treated a growing number of civilians injured by landmines.
At the time, the organization called it a “worldwide epidemic” and estimated that about 24,000 people—mostly civilians—were being killed or wounded by landmines annually.
She credited the 1997 adoption of the APMBC as a turning point. Since then, 165 states have joined the treaty.
“Over 55 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed, vast areas of land cleared, and the production and transfer of these deadly weapons significantly reduced,” she said, adding that casualties have dropped by over 75 percent since the late 1990s.
Spoljaric stressed that more than 80 percent of mine victims are civilians, including many children. Survivors often suffer lifelong disabilities and require long-term care, such as prosthetics and rehabilitation.
“In Cambodia, nearly 50 percent of the patients visiting the two physical rehabilitation centres supported by the ICRC are mine survivors—more than two decades after hostilities ended,” she said.
“In Afghanistan, ICRC teams see a similar pattern: in 2024 we cared for over 7,000 mine victims with support like prosthetic limbs, physiotherapy, and other treatment,” she added.
Rejecting claims that newer types of mines are safer, Spoljaric said, “There is no such thing as a ‘safe’ mine. Even so-called ‘non-persistent’ mines that self-deactivate still pose lethal risks while active, often fail to self-destruct, and require significant clearance efforts.”
She said no mine can distinguish between “a soldier and a child,” and warned that promises of cheap, fast clearance are misleading. “Bosnia is still haunted by mines nearly 30 years after the conflict ended. Despite the ability to identify mined areas, full clearance may still take decades.”
Calling the APMBC “one of the most successful disarmament treaties ever negotiated,” Spoljaric said weakening or abandoning the treaty “not only endangers lives—it undermines the integrity of international humanitarian law.”
With the treaty’s intersessional meetings underway in Geneva, she urged states to confront these “worrying trends” and renew their commitment.
“Now is not the time to back down. It is the time to reaffirm our collective commitment to protect civilians and uphold the principles that define our humanity,” she said.
