{"id":2044,"date":"2025-10-22T16:35:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:35:48","slug":"ukraines-proposed-suspension-of-its-mine-ban-treaty-obligations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/?p=2044","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s Proposed \u201csuspension\u201d of its Mine Ban Treaty Obligations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) worked with Human Rights Watch and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to examine Ukraine\u2019s move to \u201csuspend\u201d its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty. The result of this collaboration is the paper \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2025\/09\/22\/challenging-ukraines-mine-ban-treaty-suspension\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Challenging Ukraine\u2019s Mine Ban Treaty \u2018Suspension<\/a>\u201d (Sept 2025), which sets out both the legal and humanitarian risks of allowing a State Party to pause its commitments during an armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background: What Ukraine Has Proposed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On 18 July 2025,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apminebanconvention.org\/fileadmin\/_APMBC_SITE\/News\/2025-Ukraine-CN.385.2025-Eng.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ukraine formally notified<\/a>\u00a0the UN that it intended to \u201csuspend\u201d its obligations under the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, citing the extraordinary pressures of its ongoing war with Russia. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ukraine\u2019s move would allow the suspension to last \u201cuntil the end of the war\u201d and sets criteria for when it could resume compliance. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why the Suspension is Unlawful:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Mine Ban Treaty does not permit suspensions.\u00a0<\/strong>While the Mine Ban Treaty is silent \u00a0on the issue of suspensions, its provisions\u00a0as well as its object and purpose, make it clear that a State Party cannot suspend its obligations during armed conflict. Article 1 explicitly bans use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines\u00a0<strong>under any circumstances<\/strong>, including in armed conflict. Withdrawals are explicitly prohibited while a State Party is engaged in armed conflict. The preamble bases the treaty \u201con the principle of international humanitarian law that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Under\u00a0the Vienna Convention, a country can\u2019t use the \u201cfundamental change of circumstances\u201d argument during war.\u00a0<\/strong>Ukraine relies on Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,\u00a0claiming that the invasion changed the conditions under which it joined the treaty. But the Vienna Convention\u00a0<strong>disallows<\/strong>\u00a0invoking the \u201cfundamental change of circumstances\u201d argument if there is \u201can outbreak of hostilities.\u201d The change of circumstances must also be one that \u201c<strong>was not foreseen\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0by the negotiating\u00a0parties. While Ukraine may not have foreseen a conflict of the scale it is engaged in now, the risk of future armed conflict was unquestionably anticipated by negotiators because ending the use of antipersonnel mines in future conflicts was at the core of the treaty.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s at stake:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Humanitarian risk:<\/strong>\u00a0If Ukraine begins using or stockpiling antipersonnel mines again, it endangers civilians now and leaves a lasting, costly legacy of mine contamination that survivors and communities will have to deal with for decades.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dangerous precedent<\/strong>: Allowing a State Party to suspend its treaty obligations during an armed conflict goes against the object and purpose of the convention and sets a precedent that could be followed by other states, fundamentally weakening the ban.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Erosion of international law:\u00a0<\/strong>Treaties like the Mine Ban Treaty and principles of humanitarian law exist especially to protect civilians during war. Permitting suspensions during conflict undermines their core purpose and could be used by countries to avoid their legal obligations when they are most needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>ICBL urges States Parties to:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Individually or<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>collectively<strong>\u00a0submit formal objections<\/strong>\u00a0to Ukraine\u2019s suspension to the Mine Ban Treaty, in accordance with Article 65(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, by the deadline of\u00a0<strong>17 October 2025<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Call on Ukraine<\/strong>\u00a0to immediately\u00a0<strong>retract<\/strong>\u00a0its decision to suspend its treaty obligations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Work towards the adoption\u2014at the\u00a0<strong>22nd Meeting of States Parties in December this year\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014of a\u00a0<strong>formal clarification<\/strong>\u00a0by States Parties that suspension of obligations under the Mine Ban Convention is not permissible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publicly object to Ukraine\u2019s suspension, both in UN forums and in Mine Ban Treaty meetings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) worked with Human Rights Watch and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to examine Ukraine\u2019s move to \u201csuspend\u201d its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty. The result of this collaboration is the paper \u201cChallenging Ukraine\u2019s Mine Ban Treaty \u2018Suspension\u201d (Sept 2025), which sets out both [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2045,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions\/2045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}