Reacting to a vote Lithuanian parliament to withdraw from the Ottawa convention, a landmark treaty prohibiting the use of anti-personnel mines, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said:
“Today’s decision to leave the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is a retrograde move that will only further weaken the global consensus aimed at minimizing civilian harm during armed conflict.
“Anti-personnel mines are inherently indiscriminate weapons. They have devastating effects on civilians, sometimes decades after they are deployed, while unexploded anti-personnel landmines can blight whole regions for generations. The use of weapons which are by their nature indiscriminate is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law.
“This move, which follows the country’s recent withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions, is part of a disturbing trend which last month saw the Estonian government approve a proposal to withdraw from the convention, and the Latvian president sign into law a bill on the country’s exit from the treaty. We call on the Lithuanian government to reverse this decision that could put civilian lives at risk.”
Background
The 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (the Ottawa treaty) bans the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel mines and currently has 165 states parties.
In March, the defence ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland issued a joint statement calling on their countries to pull out of the treaty. The Finnish government has recently initiated the process of withdrawing from the Ottawa treaty.
Today Lithuania’s defence minister tweeted that the country will “resume mine production and acquisition”.