Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW
Agenda Item 16 – Mines Other Than Anti-Personnel Mines
23 November 2018
Australia recognises that Mines Other than Anti-Personnel Mines (MOTAPM) pose unacceptable humanitarian risks to civilians.
They can have detrimental effects on economic development and greatly hinder delivery of humanitarian assistance to those in urgent need.
This risk could be managed through regulation of the use and design of such weapons. The simple solution to addressing detectability is to ensure all MOTAPM have a minimum metal content along the lines established within APII for anti-personnel mines. This would be relatively simple to implement for all future systems. Understandably, this does not address existing stocks.
Australia recognises that MOTAPM will continue to have a military utility for many states, and that there is an economic cost to some states in replacing their inventories of anti-vehicle and anti-tank mines.
Australia supports continued discussions on MOTAPM if there is support by all States to continue this work, at this point in time.