The Vatican has renewed its appeal for a “greater effort” in supporting landmine victims at the 11th meeting of the States Parties to Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in Cambodia this week. "It is necessary to adopt a global approach which takes into consideration wounded families and communities," said Reverend Ignazio Ceffalia, head of the Vatican delegation at the meeting. Assistance to victims of landmines “cannot be dissociated from actions in favor of development,” he said. The meeting, which opened in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Monday, is expected to review progress in the campaign to get rid of landmines over the past year and highlight priority areas in which to work in the year to come. A special session to mark two decades of the anti-landmine movement was held today. The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention was adopted in Oslo in 1997, opened for signing in Ottawa the same year and entered into force in 1999. To date, 158 states have joined what has become known as the Ottawa Treaty with 153 of these reporting that they no longer stock anti-personnel mines. Over 44.5 million stockpiled mines have been reported destroyed. At least 34 out of 50 states that used to manufacture anti-personnel mines are now bound by the treaty’s ban on production. Most of the others have put in place moratoria on production and/or transfers of mines. The convention claims demining" so far has resulted in millions of square meters of once dangerous land now being available for normal human activity.
