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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>REGIONAL SEMINAR ON ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES 'REAFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENT'</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 99/2 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE REGIONAL SEMINAR ON ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES "REAFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENT" MEXICO CITY, Mexico January 11, 1999 (1:00 p.m. EST) This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca From the outset, our hemisphere has been actively engaged in achieving a global ban on anti-personnel mines. As a region, we played a leading role in making the Ottawa Treaty a reality. We should continue to do so as efforts turn to bringing the Convention to life. I am therefore delighted to participate in a seminar that brings us together to address practical solutions to the serious problems caused by anti-personnel mines in our hemisphere. The theme of the seminar -- "reaffirming our commitment" -- perfectly captures the spirit of the anti-personnel mine ban effort in this region. I am particularly pleased that Canada is co-sponsoring this seminar with Mexico. Mexico has been an active, constructive and much appreciated player -- and often leader -- in pursuing global disarmament and arms control issues, including anti-personnel mines. In March, the Ottawa Convention will enter into force -- faster than any disarmament convention ever. Early in the Ottawa Process, Central American and Caribbean leaders pledged to make their region mine-free by the year 2000. Thirty-three of the 35 States in our hemisphere were original signatories of the Convention. Since then, 14 States have ratified it. Our hemisphere has clearly made a major contribution to this historic achievement. Close co-operation between governments and civil society organizations was an important element of what has become known as the Ottawa Process -- and a key factor in our success. This partnership needs to continue. And as I look around the room today, I am encouraged to see that this unique coalition remains strong. The Ottawa Convention is a major achievement, but it is just the beginning. As challenging as it was, achieving the Treaty was the easy part. The real challenge is implementation and universalization. The real test will be the degree to which it makes a difference in the lives of those who must live with the threat of landmines every day. That is why we are here today. Like this meeting, governments and civil society organizations have hosted regional conferences over the past year -- in Russia, Jordan, Thailand, Hungary and Yugoslavia -- to move forward in achieving the goals of the Convention. Each of these conferences has yielded concrete results: more ratifications, more signatories, stronger public awareness of the landmine issue, more pressure on the holdouts to join the ban, and concrete mine action and victim rehabilitation projects. I hope that over the next days we will reinvigorate the region's commitment to progress in all these areas. For the first time since the beginning of the Ottawa Process, we are gathered to focus our thinking on how to rid the farm lands, playgrounds and fields of our own region of these indiscriminate killers. Signature and ratification of the Convention remains the indispensable starting point. With each new signature and ratification, another country assumes the responsibility of destroying mines on its own territory as well as supporting mine clearance and victim assistance in mine-affected states. The First Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention will be held in Mozambique in May. As I mentioned, 14 States in our hemisphere have ratified the Convention. Many more have begun the process. I challenge us to arrive in Mozambique with as many ratifications as possible -- reaffirming our strong commitment and the region's leadership role. We also need to sustain public and political momentum. This is essential to meeting the provisions of the Treaty and to making a difference in people's lives. We have made progress globally: there are now fewer than 10 mine-producing countries in the world that do not support a comprehensive moratorium or de facto ban on the export of anti-personnel mines; almost all traditional exporters of mines have ceased these activities -- the once-flourishing trade in mines has all but vanished. Use is slowing; transfers are drying up; unilateral moratoria have been adopted by key non-signatories -- the United States, Russia and China; 11 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed by 15 countries since the beginning of the Ottawa Process in 1996; as a result, millions of mines will never be produced, exported or put in the ground -- sparing thousands of lives and preventing thousands more from debilitating injuries. Awareness and support continues to grow in our region too. The peace accord between Peru and Ecuador resolved one of the most intractable disputes in South America, and provides for mine clearance activities. In Colombia, rebel alliances have renounced the use of anti-personnel mines through the "Heaven Doors Agreement." To help raise public mine awareness in Colombia, Canada will contribute $50 000 to help a local NGO [non-governmental organization] manage a nation-wide mine awareness campaign. Concrete mine action programs are indispensable to giving concrete meaning to the Convention. Over the past year, 10 donor countries have initiated close to 100 new mine action programs in 25 countries. Donors such as Canada, Norway, the European Union, the United States and Japan have mobilized significant new resources to that end. Not only has the number of mine action programs increased, but they are also being undertaken more systematically, with better record keeping and, as a result of new technologies, more rapidly, efficiently and safely than ever before. Survey work is the best insurance that mine clearance resources are dedicated to the neediest places where the impact will be highest. In the last year, a consortium of NGOs known as the Survey Contact Group teamed up with the UN system to establish standard procedures as well as a strategic approach to survey the most mine-affected states as quickly as possible. As a result of mine action programs around the world, ranging from the onerous and time-consuming process of mine clearance, to more cost-effective and targeted programs of mine awareness, to minefield marking projects, the number of new mine victims is decreasing in many states. In Bosnia, monthly incidents in 1998 dropped from 90 to 18, in Cambodia from 230 per month in 1996 to 100 per month in 1998. In Nicaragua there were only two landmine-related deaths last year. We should not underestimate the task ahead, but this is encouraging news. In our hemisphere, a wide range of new mine action programs are planned or underway in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and El Salvador. In co-operation with the OAS [Organization of American States] and Norway, Canada has set aside $1 million for a demining program in Northern Nicaragua along the Honduras border. Canada is also pleased to provide $100 000 to procure equipment to assist Peru and Ecuador in undertaking -- more safely and quickly -- demining efforts related to the demarcation of their common border. The devastation of Hurricane Mitch in Central America extended to mine action efforts. To ensure that safe and efficient mine action can take place as soon as possible, Canada provided $100 000 to support an OAS assessment mission to Central America aimed at taking stock of the hurricane's effect in this area. While demining is a firmly established priority, increased emphasis also needs to be placed on the reintegration of survivors into social and economic life. The international community is working together to establish goals and standards for victim assistance and to better co-ordinate the delivery of programming in this area. In our region, Canada is co-operating with Mexico and PAHO [Pan American Health Organization] on mine victim rehabilitation activities. We have committed $3.5 million over five years to support a community-based rehabilitation program with Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. In Guatemala, Canada and Israel are working with local authorities to promote rehabilitation of landmine victims. With concerted effort, common sense, and co-ordination, we can beat the landmines challenge. In years and not decades. The Ottawa Convention provides the road map and comprehensive framework for mine action. We are making progress in reaching our destination. But the biggest challenge ahead may be waning enthusiasm. For that reason, we must continually recommit ourselves to achieving our goals -- universal ratification, maintaining public and political momentum, and effective mine action and victim rehabilitation programs -- in other words, implementing the Treaty. Here, the role of our hemispheric institution, the OAS, is vital. The OAS is unique among regional organizations in taking on the mine action challenge through the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy and by careful tasking of the IADB [Inter-American Defense Board]. OAS work in this area has provided a model for other regional organizations. We congratulate Secretary-General Gavira, the OAS Secretariat and the member states for the impressive action taken to deal with the anti-personnel mine challenge. We believe the OAS should work closely with the UN to ensure that mine action efforts in the Americas is effectively co-ordinated and to prevent any overlap. Indeed, we believe that the OAS, with appropriate support from its members and observer states, could take on much of the ongoing mine action responsibilities for the region, freeing the UN to focus on other regions that do not have the benefit of OAS infrastructure, organization and experience. But the challenge in this region will extend beyond Central America. As we look to the full and effective implementation of Ottawa Convention commitments, the OAS may need to play more of a role in assisting member states to meet their mine action objectives including destroying stockpiles, identifying, marking and mapping mined areas, demining and destroying anti-personnel mines, and victim assistance. Here OAS member states have already taken important decisions at the regional level that complement and reinforce Ottawa Convention commitments, such as the establishment at the Caracas General Assembly of a regional anti-personnel mine register. Transparency is key in combatting the anti-personnel mine challenge. We would invite all countries that are not signatories to the Convention -- in this region and elsewhere -- to voluntarily submit information under Article 7 of the Ottawa Convention, particularly on stocks, mine action programs and unilateral measures taken to stop the use and trade of anti-personnel mines. We are making progress. This seminar, in particular the participation of both governments and civil society, maintains the spirit of the Ottawa Process and, I am confident, will help move us further in the direction of a world without landmines. Thank you. </body> </html>

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