EU Statement – UN General Assembly 4th Committee: Assistance in Mine Action
- CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY -
Chair and distinguished colleagues,
I am pleased to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
Long after armed conflicts have ended, in some cases for decades, mines and explosive remnants of war continue to cause harm, separate communities, prolong displacement and strip entire regions of the opportunity for recovery and development. The consequences of this dislocation are humanitarian, deeply psychological as well as economic.
In supporting efforts to address these challenges, the European Union is a major donor for mine action worldwide, and the EU and its Member States have a long and proud history of support for mine clearance, assistance to victims, risk education, capacity building and stockpile destruction. Since 2023, the EU has contributed over 180 million EUR to support countries with humanitarian mine action, including 97 million EUR for clearance efforts
The European Union is also resolute in its support forand advancing of the humanitarian objectives of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC). We have also made substantial contributions to the APMBC in promoting adherence to the Convention’shumanitarian principles and objectives, and the ratification of, and accession to the Convention. The EU supports States Parties in their full and effective implementation of the Convention.
We remain deeply concerned by the ongoing use of anti-personnel mines and the resulting contamination. In particular, we condemn Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as the use of anti-personnel mines that makes Ukraine the most mine-contaminated country in the world.
The European Union is grateful to Poland for once again facilitating this resolution on behalf of the EU, in what was a challenging negotiating environment for a text traditionally adopted by consensus. We highly value the resolution on Assistance in Mine Action and its role in reaffirming the normative framework for the humanitarian mine action activities carried out by the UN system.
We believe this year’s resolution preserved its core components, with some modest improvements. There are updated references to the safe mobility of displaced persons, food security, and agricultural recovery, as well as new requests for UN partners to account for explosive ordinance contamination in their assessments, plans and budgets. New language promoting context specific, community driven and accessible risk education has also been included. The European Union continues our call for all UN member states to remain committed to respecting and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law. We are pleased to see these calls continue to be reflected in the text.
Mine Action remains an important topic, including amid the ongoing reform of the UN system. The European Union hopes that in future, the resolution can reflect additional updates that were discussed during consultations. Notably, the EU would welcome references to relevant political instruments, including the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas, as the indiscriminate use of such weapons poses a serious risk to civilians and to aid workers globally. The Zero Draft also included a reference to Action 26 from the Pact of the Future, in which member states committed to redouble their efforts to implement their respective obligations to prohibit or restrict conventional weapons due to their humanitarian impact, and take steps to promote all relevant aspects of mine action. We also regret that we were unable to reference both the importance and impact of the Humanitarian Reset and UN80 on all aspects of the humanitarian system, including mine action.
In closing, we thank delegations, particularly those that have co-sponsored the resolution, for their constructive engagement, and we ask all member states to support the draft resolution.
Thank you.