30.11.2018
Geneva - In the margins of the Seventeenth Meeting of the States Parties, Sri Lanka and Palestine, for whom the Article 7 reporting obligation entered into force, presented their first transparency report. Sri Lanka which acceded to the Convention on 13 December 2017, and Palestine which did so on 29 December 2017, had until the end of November to submit their Article 7 report. Both delegations took advantage of the Meeting to fulfill their obligation within deadline. On 29 November during the Convention's 17MSP, Secretary to the Ministry of Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Northern Development and Hindu Religious Affairs, V. Sivagnanasothy, officially presented Sri Lanka's initial transparency report to the UN Secretary-General's representative, Peter Kolarov.
On the same day, Colonel Osama Zakaria Abu Hananeh, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Mine Action, officially presented Palestine's initial transparency report to the UN Secretary-General's representative, Peter Kolarov.In its transparency report, Palestine declared it did not have any stockpiled anti-personnel mines. With this announcement, plus Oman's declaration of having destroyed its stocks, there are now 161 States Parties which no longer have stockpile destruction obligations under the Convention. The Convention is the prime humanitarian and disarmament treaty aimed at ending the suffering caused by landmines by prohibiting their use, stockpiling, production and transfer, ensuring their destruction and assisting the victims of these weapons. It was adopted on 18 September 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999. Together, the 164 States Parties have destroyed more than 51 million landmines. For more information, isu(at)apminebanconvention.org |