Foreign NGOs and social activists launch petition titled ‘Global Advocacy for a Mine-Free World’

A group of representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world launched a petition titled “Global Advocacy for a Mine-Free World”.

Report informs that the petition was announced on the international platform Jotform within the framework of the international campaign “World for Peace in the Caucasus”.

According to the petition, landmines and UXOs pose a serious threat to the health, lives, and safety of the civilian population: “Landmines continue to kill and maim people long after the conflicts are over. They cause permanent disabilities, inflicting life-long injuries, and their direct psychological effects appear high.”

The campaign said that 60 million people worldwide are still at risk from landmines. Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Ukraine, and Vietnam are among the most contaminated countries in the world.

According to the petition, in Azerbaijan, which is also suffering greatly due to contamination, over 30 years 3,406 people have fallen victims of landmines. Since the end of the Second Karabakh War in 2020, 327 Azerbaijanis have been killed or injured by landmines in ruined residential areas, agricultural fields, cemeteries, river banks, unused roads, etc. Around 90 percent of victims of landmines and UXOs have been innocent Azerbaijani civilians.

“In the aftermath of recent counter-terrorism measures on 19-20 September 2023, the Azerbaijani authorities discovered that at least, more than half a million additional landmines have been planted by remnants of Armenian armed forces and illegal armed detachments in 480 km line of contact around the former ‘gray zone’. Unfortunately, a majority of these newly planted landmines have been illegally transferred to Azerbaijani territories from Armenia via the Lachin road until the establishment of the Lachin checkpoint on 23 April 2023,” reads the petition.”

The authors of the petition urge Armenia to immediately share maps of newly implanted areas with Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan supports humanitarian demining efforts globally. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, put forward a proposal on launching the 18th SDG on demining and creating a Contact Group for consultations and practical cooperation on humanitarian demining within the Non-Aligned Movement. The latter was established on 8 September 2023 in New York. In its national capacity, Azerbaijan has already set a particular national SDG on humanitarian demining,” reads the petition.

The petition caused serious resonance, despite its new announcement, more than 100 civil society activists from about 10 countries have already declared that they joined the global mobilization campaign against landmines and supported the global solution to this problem.