At the fifth review of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the international community raised concerns on Monday about the ongoing threats posed by the continued use of land mines.

The treaty, commonly referred to as Ottawa Convention, was established in 1997 and sought to end global land mine production and deployment. Today, 164 nations are party to the Convention, and the agreement “has been a central framework for States in conducting mine action activities” that resulted in vast reductions in land mine proliferation.

In a message to the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged positive advancement while cautioning against continued land mine use:

[The Convention] has driven important progress, with over 55 million anti-personnel devices destroyed across 13,000 square kilometres in over 60 countries, and thousands of people receiving life-saving awareness education and victim assistance services. But the threat remains.  This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons.

Pope Francis also joined the conference with his own statement, stressing the human cost of inaction, stating that “[c]onflicts are a failure of humanity to live as a single human family”. He further emphasized that “[w]hen this occurs, it is evident that all of humanity loses, precisely because all human life is sacred.”

The conference coincided with Landmine Monitor‘s 2024 report, which was released earlier this month. The NGO coalition conducts an annual review on the state of land mine production, use, and causalities, and stated that in 2023, land mines killed or maimed at least 5,757 people, 84 percent of whom were civilians. Over one third of civilian casualties were children.

The report also indicated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to substantial mine deployment in the country. As Russia is not a party to the Convention, the review noted that this has resulted “in an unprecedented situation in which a country that is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty is using the weapon on the territory of a State Party”.

Additionally, the coalition found that, between mid-2023 and October 2024, mines have been produced and used by governments in Myanmar, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non government groups in Colombia, India, Pakistan, and Palestine.