The 2026 Intersessional Meetings took place on June The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) calls on all States Parties to defend the Mine Ban Treaty at a defining moment. Five European nations (Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland) have now formally withdrawn from the treaty, with several p 2026 at the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG).
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) calls on all States Parties to defend the Mine Ban Treaty at a defining moment. Five European nations (Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland) have now formally withdrawn from the treaty, with several pursuing plans to produce, stockpile, deploy, and even export antipersonnel mines. This unprecedented reversal threatens nearly three decades of humanitarian disarmament progress.
Why This Moment Demands Action:
An Unprecedented Rupture: For the first time in the treaty’s history, States Parties have withdrawn, breaking the near-universal norm built over 25 years and legitimizing weapons that overwhelmingly kill and maim civilians. That some withdrawing states now plan to manufacture and transfer mines compounds the danger.
- A Continuing Humanitarian Crisis: Landmines and explosive remnants continue to claim thousands of casualties each year, the vast majority of them civilians, and many of them children. Every mine laid today becomes tomorrow’s casualty, tomorrow’s survivor, and tomorrow’s decades-long clearance burden.
- Compliance Is as Vital as Membership: Mounting evidence of production and use in Ukraine — a State Party — raises grave concerns. The Convention’s credibility rests not only on who belongs, but on whether all members honor the obligations they freely undertook.
- Security Cannot Justify Indiscriminate Weapons: Security concerns are real, but the international community long ago concluded that the humanitarian consequences of antipersonnel mines are unacceptable, no matter the circumstances. That reality has not changed.
At this year’s Intersessionals, the ICBL expects States Parties to:
- Publicly condemn the withdrawals and urge Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to return to the Convention and abandon any plans to produce, transfer, or deploy mines.
- Reaffirm unequivocally that antipersonnel mines violate international humanitarian law and cause unacceptable harm.
Address compliance concerns, including credible reports of production and use in Ukraine, with the seriousness they warrant. - Strengthen commitments to clearance, victim assistance, and universalization — keeping survivors at the centre under the principle of “nothing about us without us.”
This year also offers proof that a different path is possible. Croatia declared completion of its mine clearance obligations nearly three decades after its conflict ended, and Lebanon acceded to the Treaty amid active hostilities — a reminder that protecting civilians is most meaningful precisely when it is hardest.
PLEASE SUPPORT THIS IMPORTANT WORK AND ENCOURAGE LEADERS TO JOIN AND UPHOLD THE MINE BAN TREATY.