29th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers opening session

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to the 29th International Meeting of my Nation, National Directors and United Nations Advisors here in Geneva.

It is truly powerful to see this room filled again.

Colleagues, friends and partners from all across the globe.

Some of you coming from complex and challenging environments.

Some of you will have travelled long distances, not just geographically but professionally also working in contexts where mine action is not abstract but truly life saving.

We are honoured to open this year's NDM in such distinguished company, including representatives from national mine action authorities, international and national operators, NGOSUN partners and donors.

A very well welcome to all colleagues joining us from around the globe.

It is so inspiring to see this diverse community seated right in front of us, sharing a common purpose to strengthen mine action and reduce the risks posed by explosive ordinance.

Hi everyone, I'm Namrata Singh from the GICHD.

Hello, I'm James Staples from Unmas and we are delighted to be your master of ceremonies for this year's meeting.

We'll be guiding you through the next few days.

Over the next three days we have a really exciting programme for all of you.

5 plenaries, 36 side events, 4 workshops, which is a new feature for this year's NDM, followed by a reception later tonight at 6:00 PM.

You can also find all the programme by scanning the QR code on your badges.

We'll be giving you more admin information throughout the day, but for now, it is our pleasure to formally start proceedings by welcoming the first of our 4 opening speakers, Miss Kazumi Agawa, Director of the UN Mine Action Service.

Miss Agawa, if you'd come to the stage, thank you.

James and Namrita, Excellencies, National Directors, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, it's my pleasure to welcome you this morning to the 29th Meeting of National Directors of Mine Action.

This is a unique meeting Co hosted by a United Nations entity and a specialised NGO, made possible with generous support of the Swiss government, attended by you, the the National Mine Action authorities, NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society partners in the commercial sector.

It's a privilege for me to be here and to have joined the United Nations Mine Action Service as its director in February.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in the coming days.

As I look around the room, I see the diversity and the dynamic attitude of of the sector that the that the sector embraces.

From the military to the humanitarian, from the diplomat to the activist, the researcher to the publicist, the advocate to the technician.

It's very clear to me that first of all, you all know each other.

But this is a dynamic sector with great impact, with global reach in the community and throughout the world.

One that does impressive work in the most trying of circumstances.

And I hope you allow me to pay tribute to your dedication.

The past 12 months have been challenging for the mine action sector and the international sector more broadly.

We've seen some countries leave humanitarian disarmament treaties that have kept us safe for decades.

Yet other countries have joined and there's been a groundswell of support for the treaties and their universalization.

There's been an overall reduction in international funding and the closure of some mine action programmes.

Yet the sector and many of you in the room have persevered, finding new routes, new options and new ways of doing business.

Mine action authorities continue to struggle with underfunding and various levels of political will and engagement.

At the same time, we are seeing new mine action authorities being established, such as in the Central African Republic, or enabling embryonic structures put in place.

And I'd like to add that Croatia has just declared itself mine free.

Conflict has continued or deepened in many regions of the world, exposing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to the risk of mines and explosive ordnance.

Yet we, the global mine action community, seeks to grow, harnessing new technology, new approaches and new networks to deliver to those in need.

There are, and there will remain, many complex and interlinked challenges.

And yet here we are, undeterred in record numbers, committed to a shared vision of mine action, protecting, supporting and enabling the lives of those that are at risk.

The theme for this year's NDM is 1 Humanity and for me, the theme of One Humanity says three things.

It speaks to the indiscriminate nature of minds and explosive ordinance.

They can destroy a life in an instant.

They impact the villager collecting wood to heat their home, They injure or maim the curious child walking to school, They block the humanitarian convoy from from trying to feed the hungry.

They endanger us, the peacekeepers, and they endanger if they threaten the D minor.

Secondly, one humanity illustrates that the only way to overcome the scourge of these terrible weapons is by working together as one.

There are challenges that one country faces that another has overcome.

There are technical solutions being developed in one area that can improve our work in others.

There are lessons about legislation, communications, clearance, EORE, advocacy, training, safety that we can all learn from one another.

Working together is a key outcome of this meeting and of the relationships that we that we are here to form.

Finally, for me, the theme of one humanity reflects on values and our rights.

The right to life, safety and to opportunity.

Exclusive ordinance damages, challenges and undermines these these rights.

We're here today to protect the world from these threats.

We share a set of values irrespective of where we come from, irrespective of our age, our religion, our gender.

We share a commitment to help others and to uphold the values that we believe in our work through mine action and this is a very powerful objective.

It joins us, I, I think in our common challenges for the at least for the next few days and and hopefully as we leave this this this meeting.

This year's NDM has plenaries on EORE, on land release, the enabling character of mine action, new approaches in the sector, donor funding and of course the national Directors afternoon their side events on topics as diverse as innovation, cultural protection, peace building, climate, victim assistance.

With great opportunities to showcase our work and to learn from one another.

I'd like to thank you all for in advance for your engagement and contributions and wish us all a very fruitful and productive meeting.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Director Ogawa for setting this seed and your insightful words.

It is now my pleasure to invite on stage Ambassador Tobias Privatelli, Director of the GICHD.

Tobias, the floor is yours.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, excellencies.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, it's fantastic to have all of you here in Geneva again for the 29th edition of the NDM.

I would like to start by welcoming the new Animus Director, Kazumi Ogawa, to our family, so to say, and wish you every success in a very difficult time in this important task.

[Other language spoken]

The slogan of this conference is 1.

Humanity, and it's not simply a phrase.

It speaks to something fundamental in mine action.

Explosive ordinance does not respect borders, politics, or identities.

It affects are felt across countries, across communities, and across generations.

It kills and injuries, it restricts movement, and it undermines livelihood.

Mine action, at its core, responds to that current and sad reality.

It is grounded in the simple idea that dignity, safety and access to land should not depend on where a person lives, who they are, and which crisis has the world's biggest attention.

It is also important to note, as Kazumi did, that this is embedded in international norms, in conventions, in treaties, and they guide us as a very useful frameworks and a part of our strengths.

We are meeting at a time of a lot of tensions, divisions, crises, a time of limited resources, increasing needs and a time where we see more and more of these devastating consequences of explosive ordinance contamination for civilians.

So I suggest that we focus on three key questions during the meeting of the next three days.

The first one would be, are we describing the reality really as it is?

That means are we honest about the constraints, the trade-offs, the efficiency of the sector and what responsible risk management requires?

The second question I suggest would be, are we really creating conditions for better and more efficient decisions?

Good decisions need strong national ownership, skilled personnel, reliable information and institutions that people can trust.

These solutions depend on the ability to listen to those who are affected, who have the knowledge of the context, those voices which are overheard very often in communities.

I'm speaking also about women, people with disabilities, children, people in difficult socioeconomic circumstances.

And then of course, all of that work depends on the standards that we are elaborating together and also hopefully applying together.

The third question I suggest would be, are we acting in a way that reflects the scale of the problem?

Mine action is by definition a collective effort.

That's why we're here, a collective effort which means that national authorities lead operators deliver, United Nation supports the coordination and the response and donors make all of that possible.

Others bringing expertise, innovation, evidence, and of course, this collective effort requires a lot of discussion and coordination.

If we get it right, our system will be solid and yelled additional results.

That's why we have this conference and that's why we need to build confidence among ourselves.

The slogan of One Humanity reminds us that mine action is not only about the items found in contaminated areas.

It's not only about the land cleared and the square metres released.

It's about the people.

It's about the farmer who can use his land or her land safely.

It's about the refugees who are able to return to their homeland.

One, Humanity says a lot also about how we should work in this area, because no single actor has the full picture, no single national authorities affect the community can act on his own.

It gives us an opportunity to be able to share experiences today again.

And I hope that we will also create new ideas and not just repeat the dialogues we had in the past.

So this meeting will help us to establish new relationships and our efficiency.

Effectiveness in the sector will depend a lot on it.

We will explore a few new subjects this year.

This afternoon we will hear from speakers from affected countries about new practises that combine explosive ordinance, risk education and conflict preparedness and protection in order to protect communities living in conflict.

Tomorrow morning we will present the new International Mine Action Standard on land release and we will have a panel discussion on that.

It was published in January.

Tomorrow afternoon we are pleased to introduce a new format, the NDMUN programme, with workshops where practical topics and hands on exercises will be conducted.

I hope we will use this exchange for an honest discussion because the problem hasn't become smaller, but rather bigger in the last year.

So let me end with a simple reminder.

Somewhere today a parent will decide whether it is safe for his child to go to school.

A farmer will decide whether he can plant crops or not.

A family will decide whether they can return home.

They are not here and they're not following this meeting, but they might have to live with the consequences and the impact of our conversations.

That there's a connection, as you know, between those gathered in this room and those affected in the countries on the threat of explosive ordinance.

And that's why we chose the spoken of one humanity.

And that's why the meeting matters.

Let me end by thanking Switzerland for hosting us.

Let me thank the United Nations for the excellent corporation we're having, the Anmas team in particular in New York and in Geneva.

And let us have a productive and inspiring meeting.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Ambassador Privatelli, for your words and sharing your vision for the next three days.

I'm now honoured to welcome back to the NDM the United Nations Under Secretary General for Peace Operations, Mr Jean Pierre Lacroix, to say a few words.

USG, the floor is yours.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, national directors, colleagues and friends, it's really a pleasure for me to be with you in Geneva for the 29 Mine Action National Directors meeting.

I would like to thank the government of Switzerland for hosting us once again this year.

Switzerland's commitment to mine action and to the multilateral architecture that supports it.

[Other language spoken]

It sorry that and, and, and the multilateral architecture that supported is long standing.

And of course, we deeply value this commitment.

This year's is the largest meeting of National Directors meeting to date.

This is a testament to the importance of the mine action sector and the the dedication of each of you.

But it is also a sad indictment of the state of the world and our ongoing struggle to read ourselves, our landmines, explosive rediments of war and IDs.

This meeting bring together people who are on the front lines, protecting their families, friends and neighbours.

Despite the large and varied audience, this is a meeting of and four national directors.

You're here as the architects of national systems that must outlast any individual programme, any UN presence and any donor cycle.

And that is what makes the NDM so important.

So as we were reminded by the previous speaker, Kazumi and Ambassador Priviteroli, this year's team is 1 Humanity.

And as was said by you, Ambassador Privitali, it's not just a slogan.

Of course, it's more than that.

It's a statement of purpose.

Every life lost to mine or explosive ordnance is a life that belonged to our common humanity.

Every child who cannot walk to school, every farmer who cannot reach their fields, every refugee and IDP who cannot return to their home.

These are failures of our collective responsibility.

They're a moral injury to society and our global consciousness.

These are failures to of our humanity.

So what does one humanity in the context of mine action mean to you and to us?

What are the questions that you're seeking answers for here at the NDM?

What are the challenges that we want you want to overcome?

All the networks you want to build this week that will serve your community, your organisation, your action and your nation.

Let me share with you some of the thoughts that came across when we were discussing this year's meeting and theme with my team.

I'm here today with two or three different hats on as the Under Secretary General for Peace Operation, as the UN Executive Leader for UNMAS, and as the Chair of EU NS Internet Interagency Coordination Group on mine action.

So the first peacekeeping hat, one humanity to this hat means protecting and safeguarding peacekeepers from mines and explosive old man's.

It means fulfilling a duty of care to keep them safe as they serve others and support peace in countries that are not their own, doing a tough and dangerous job that we, the people of the world have requested of them.

And unfortunately, we're sadly reminded recently of the danger resulting from the presence of IED.

And three of our peacekeepers were killed in Lebanon recently in the context of the presence of IED in southern Lebanon.

So wearing my second hat, my unmasked hat, one Humanity means supporting programming across 19 programmes, from hot conflict to stabilisation and reconciliation.

It means working with partners across the whole of the mine Action community, serving the UN, our Member State, being an ally, partner and supporter to national mine action authorities and organisations, stepping forward together as one, and finally wearing the third hat as chair of the Interagency Coordination Group on Mine Action.

One Humanity inspires me to work collectively across the UN system.

There are over 12 different UN agencies working on Mine action, serving people in different ways, delivering life saving humanitarian aid, helping the displaced return home, clearing rubble for early recovery.

They are doing different things, supporting different people in different circumstances.

They and we, the UN Mine Action Family, are united by One Humanity serving those in need for the betterment of all.

I know that many of you here will also be wearing more than one hat.

In many of these functions, you fulfil your work with partners.

Partners are key to delivering mine action and I'm delighted to see how such a wide range of mine action partners at the NDM this year.

The UN family works alongside national authorities every day.

We work with NGOs such as the Foundation, Svispi de Minaj, Halo Trust and the Capito Nacional, the Mine Advisory Group, Norwegian People's Head and of course the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian de Mining, with whom we organise this annual event.

Of course, we're extremely grateful for that partnership.

Together we integrate mine action into broader stabilisation, development and humanitarian response programming.

We work with diplomats from many of your nations on mine action related negotiations and resolutions, such as on the UN General Assembly Resolution on Assistance in Mine Action approved in December last year that included important provisions on missing persons stabilisation and the differentiated impact of mines and explosive ordnance.

We also collaborate to safeguard our normative architecture, namely the humanitarian disarmament treaties.

We work to uphold these vital foundations in partnership with many actors, including humanitarian organisations such as the ICRC and civil society.

Together, we advocate for compliance and strong adherence to these norms and for the protection of civilians that these treaties were designed to ensure.

There have been challenges to our humanitarian disarmament architecture, but progress has been made as well.

We should acknowledge and celebrate it.

Just last month, Croatia was declared mind free.

That is a powerful result.

It is what national commitments sustain investment and international partnership can achieve.

The treaties are also attracting new members.

Tonga and the Marshall Islands have acceded to the Ottawa Treaty.

Venuatu has acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

And of course, we welcome each of these commitments.

Universalization is not a formality, it's the foundation of protection.

I therefore call on all Member States who remain committed and work towards universalisation of the Anti Personal Mind Ban Convention, the Convention, the Cluster munition and the conventions on certain conventional weapons.

I also want to acknowledge Japan's leadership of the APNBC Presidency.

It has been a period of strong advocacy and principled engagement.

And of course, I look forward to working with Zambia as the new APNBC President.

I also want to congratulate the Lao Lao People's Democratic Republic for preparing to host the third Review Conference of the Convention of Cluster Munitions in September and to highlight the 7th Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons due in November.

The UN family looks forward to supporting progression and implementation of these important treaties.

Mine action sits at the heart of many UN activities, from unmasked programmes saving lives across 19 programmes to FA0, 0DA, UNDP, UNICEF, UNOPS and others working daily to protect civilians and build lasting peace.

I want to take a moment to express my deep appreciation for each of these partners.

Their commitment and expertise are what make our collective impact possible.

I have witnessed extensive destruction left by hostilities, as you most of you did, and I've seen the transformative work on UN, on the UN's mine action work first hand.

Earlier this year I visited Unifield in southern Lebanon and last year I visited Syria.

I spoke to those affected by explosive hazards and to those putting themselves at risk to clear them and to guarantee a brighter future.

I've seen this work at different stages of it's arc.

In Cambodia, I witnessed that 30 years of sustained mine action can achieve a country transformed, its land restored, its people safe, and I deeply appreciate Cambodia's contribution of explosive ordnance disposal and de mining capabilities to peacekeeping.

30 years after hosting the First United Nations peacekeeping operation to conduct the mining in Afghanistan, I saw the heroic work of clearing explosive hazards in an active, politically complex environment carried out by dedicated partners under extraordinary difficult conditions.

Together, these visits reinforce my conviction that the mine action sector has an irreplaceable role precisely where the stakes are highest, at UN Peace Operation Planned Foreclosure.

As UN Peace Operation plans foreclosure and transition, we as a mine action community need to consider how to best safeguard gains in these countries and how to enable UN country teams as well as NGOs and national authorities around the world.

Conflict dynamics are, as we know, changing rapidly.

Technology is advancing.

The threat environment is shifting faster than our frameworks.

Improvised explosive devices continue to kill.

They kill peacekeepers, head workers, civilians across conflict zone every single day.

Drone delivered explosive oldness has emerged as a new and rapidly evolving threat.

The sector is catching up, but it's work in progress and it's a challenging, challenging work.

Obviously at the same time, new technologies offer real opportunities.

Drones for survey and mapping, data-driven prioritisation and AI assisted detection.

However, none of this is possible without funding.

We will all be aware of the increased pressure on International Development assistance, a shrinking pot in a time of growing need, and we feel the impact.

Last year, 30 donor governments contributed approximately US 75 million to UNMAS.

That is a meaningful expression of solidarity.

We're extremely grateful to each of those government others gave to different parts of the UN, to civil society or to national authorities.

Yet the scale of the problem and available resources are misaligned.

Friday's closing plenary with focus on refraining the financing of mine action.

It's one of the most important conversations this sector can have.

Before I close a word about this morning's clean up speaker, we will shortly hear from Mariam Boka Hassan, a renowned poet and a United Nation global advocate for peace.

Your work speak to the human dimension of what we do, the stories behind statistics, the voices that are too often absent for rooms like this one.

And that we that will remind us that mine action is about people.

It's about restoring to communities the land, the safety and the futures that conflict has taken away from them.

And that is really what one humanity means in practise.

So this meeting matters, not just for the sector, but more importantly for the millions of people who depend on us.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you Under Secretary Lacroix for this valuable insights.

It is a pleasure to once again have you with us.

I would now warmly welcome the keynote speaker for the day.

This year we are delighted to be joined by Mariam Booker Hassan.

Miss Hassan is a renowned spoken word artist, social activist and poet.

In 2025, she was appointed by the Secretary General as the United Nations Global Advocate for Peace.

Miss Hassan, it is truly an honour to have you with us.

The floor is yours, ma'am.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that.

Welcome now excellencies, distinguished delegates, peace builders and believers that humanity is still capable of learning.

[Other language spoken]

I want you to do this with me.

I want you to follow me on a journey this morning by show of hands.

How many of us believe in science?

[Other language spoken]

How many of us believe that God created mankind?

[Other language spoken]

And how many of us believe that we come from the evolution of apes or time?

OK, hold that thought.

Now, I want you to close your eyes for a minute.

And we're going to do this as human beings, not as diplomats or representatives, but as human beings.

I want you to think of a child that you love the most, the way that they laugh, the way that they run.

And now imagine you're out in the field and they're walking towards something simple to pick a ball or a flower, and the ground beneath them holds a decision that they did not make.

And in one moment everything changes.

Now open your eyes, because for many of the people, this is not imagination, this is life.

And whether you believe that we were shaped by God or formed through time and evolution, what you're really saying is we began from one place, one origin, one breath, one humanity.

And there was a time before borders were drawn, before lands were giving names and divided, and before we learned how to call one another enemy.

A time when the earth was not something we buried fear into, but something we stood on together.

But somewhere along the way we forgot.

And when we forgot, we learnt how to divide.

And when we divided, we learnt how to destroy.

And when we destroyed, we learnt how to do something even more dangerous.

We learnt how to leave behind violence that out leaves us.

While young people like myself and future generations are asking how to become better people, some of our leaders are still asking how to become more powerful, even if that power disrupts our future.

Somewhere in the world right now, a child is dreaming of who they will become.

A doctor, a teacher, a builder of something better.

But somewhere else, a decision is being made that will determine whether that child gets a chance or not.

And history has shown us what happens when power is pursued without humanity.

The name may change, but the consequences remain the same.

Somewhere in the world right now, a war that has already ended is still claiming lives.

We like to believe that war ends when treaties are signed, or when soldiers withdraw, or when the world moves on to the next crisis.

But the land does not move on.

It holds memory differently.

It remembers in fragments of metal buried beneath its skin.

It remembers in silence.

It remembers explosion delayed by years and sometimes even decades.

And during the Second World War, a war we often refer to in past tense, there are still lands today that remain untouched, unwalkable and unlivable because the weapons refuse to leave.

And so I ask us today, truthfully, do we ever truly learn from history?

Or do we simply rename destruction and call it progress?

Because somehow, as humans, we have evolved enough to map the stars, yet not enough to make the earth safe to walk on.

Because what we're witnessing today is a return.

A return to a kind of barbarism that wears the suit of modernity.

A return to something deeply primitive, A world where sovereignty is negotiated through force, where power is asserted through violence, and where decisions are made in rooms far removed from the lands that will carry their consequence.

So what do we call a system where leaders authorise destruction that they may never live long enough to answer to?

Because truly, the most dangerous part of it all is this.

The people who decide on war may not live long enough to walk through its aftermath, but a young person will, a child will, a farmer will, and a mother will.

Today, global military spending exceeds $2.5 trillion, 2.5 trillion invested in perfecting how we destroy.

And yet when it comes to clearing the remnants, when it comes to funding mine action to restore safety, to give back the land its dignity, we hesitate, we negotiate, and we delay.

What does that say about us?

That we are more efficient at ending lives?

That we are at rebuilding them.

Excellencies, delegates, peacebuilders and those who still believe humanity is capable of learning.

I stand before you today as a witness.

A witness to lands that remember what we are trying to forget.

I come from Borno State in Nigeria and it ranks 5 globally in civilian casualties.

So this is not distant nor is it abstract to me.

This is the land where I have watched people who have had to relearn how to walk, where the ground is not always something you trust because it remembers what was done to it.

In Nigeria alone, particularly in the northeast communities, we have lived with contamination for years of insurgency.

In 2023 alone, hundreds of explosions were recorded, lives and bodies altered.

In 2024 / 400 civilians were killed and injured by these hidden dangers.

This is what land mines do.

They do not ask who you are, they do not care what side you belong to.

They do not recognise cease fires or when we decide that the soldiers should be withdrawn and they do not retire.

When wars end, they wait and ask when will you arrive?

And when they answer, they answer civilians and still people return to farm to rebuild and try again.

Because live insists on continuing even when the ground is uncertain.

Because war, as we have designed it, refuses to end.

And this is not unique to where I come from.

In Borno, in Congo, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, in Vietnam, Syria, in the Solomon Islands, in Ukraine, in Colombia and others, the story is the same.

Different languages, but same truth, same loss, same weighting.

In Cambodia, decades after conflict, farmers still lose limbs cultivating their land.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, mines laid in the 1990s still wait beneath the surface.

In Lebanon, cluster munitions continue to shape memory and movement.

And in Palestine, the danger is not only what falls from the sky, but what remains after.

The war might have ended, but the Earth still negotiates with death.

Today, some 60 countries and territories remain contaminated by land mines and explosive remnants of war.

And we understand the cost of retaliation because history has shown us again and again that when conflict expands, there is no win.

When humanity as a whole loses, A survivor once said we don't walk freely, we walk remembering.

Every year over 4000 people are killed or injured by land mines and explosive remnants of war.

Most of them are civilians, many of them are children.

And there was a moment in history when the world looked at this reality and said enough.

The Ottawa Treaty.

It was born out of outrage, out of photographs that the world could not Unsee and out of survivors who stood on prosthetic limbs.

And they said this should not exist.

And for a moment, humanity agreed with itself.

We said there are weapons that do not belong in any future that we are trying to build.

And yet today, we're seeing more than ever before.

We're seeing in real time, We're seeing up close, we're seeing the cost clearly, and still we are not outraged enough.

Because when violence becomes familiar, it becomes acceptable.

And when it becomes acceptable, agreement strain and commitment weakens.

We're watching the slow erosion of something that once felt non negotiable.

5 countries at a time like this are stepping away from this treaty.

What does that say about the direction that we are moving in?

Because every time that the ground shifts and that line shifts, it affects someone else.

[Other language spoken]

We look at the escalation of conflict and the intensity of bombardment and the speed at which destruction travels.

And so we must ask today, in a world where disruption is accelerating, who is accounting for what remains?

Because every bomb dropped today has a second life.

And if we're honest, really, the people who make these decisions will not walk on those fields.

Neither will they send their children to test the grounds or the fields.

They will not step where metal weighs beneath the dust.

They will not send their children ahead of them to really test the ground.

But someone will.

So let us speak honestly about what these weapons do because sometimes the language that we use hides the truth.

We say unexploded ordinance or we say post conflict contamination.

But what that means is a child walking to school who does not return home.

The boy, he picks up something that looks like a metal.

And curiosity is natural at that age.

[Other language spoken]

War has a way of turning curiosity into consequence.

A farmer whose land becomes a threat instead of livelihood.

A family returning home after years of displacement, learning to fear the ground beneath their feet.

A mother in Palestine once said we teach our children how to recognise danger in the shape of everyday things, risk education.

And yet there are those, even in this room who wake up each day knowing that their work requires them to walk into uncertainty so that others may one day forget what fear feels like beneath their feet.

Those who choose courage.

Dirty miners, the peacekeepers, the ones who stand at the front line of protection and restoration.

This is why mine action is not a technical work, it is a human work.

And for almost 3 decades, the United Nations Mine Action Service has worked in these fragile places.

Their work is never reduced to the removal of explosives.

It is the restoration of possibility.

And through the work of the United Nations Mine Action Service and partners around the world, millions of square metres of land has been cleared and communities have returned home.

Children have gone back to schools and farmers have reclaimed their land.

Please, a round of applause for the UN mine action.

But let us be clear that mine action, as powerful and necessary as it is, it is also evidence that we have failed to prevent what needed to be prevented.

And we cannot continue to invest in disruption and outsource the responsibility of repair.

We cannot continue like this.

The level of impunity we are witnessing today should not only trouble us, it should alarm us.

Because ceasefires are violated with little consequence.

International humanitarian law is stretched, tested and sometimes even ignored.

And even those who carry the flag of the United Nations and aid, those who exist to protect and to restore dignity to the land and rebuild, are no longer shielded from harm.

What does it mean for a world where those who restore lives are themselves targeted?

So the question is not only how do we stop what is happening now, but also are we willing to be honest about what allowed it to begin?

Because if we're not, then we risk normalising a world where power overrides principle and where dialogue is fragile, and where peace is only one decision away from collapse.

And that cannot be the world that we accept.

And beyond human cost, the Earth itself is wounded.

Fields are left uncultivated, water sources inaccessible, and ecosystems disrupted.

We are not only inheriting conflict, we are inheriting damaged Earth.

Even now, somewhere in the world, a decision is being made today that will still be killing people 20 years from now.

In the end, no matter what we believe about how we began, whether God, whether science, whether evolution through time or apes, we all arrive at the same truth, that the pain of 1 does not stay contained within one place and that is the reality, and that the consequence of violence do not recognise borders.

So the question before us is not whether we understand the issue, because we do.

The question is what are we willing to protect?

Will we protect the agreements that say these weapons should not exist?

Will we protect the systems that clear what has already been done?

And will we protect the lives that are still working on uncertain ground?

Or will we allow the distance between decision and consequence to become so wide that we forget that they are connected and history will not remember what we said in rooms like this.

It will remember what we chose to leave behind in the ground.

So will we leave behind a world that remembers violence longer that it remembers peace?

Or will we choose to recommit and invest in peace in mind action that not only clears the land but clears the path forward because excellencies, distinguished delegates, believers that the world is still capable of learning.

We are not many humanities.

We are one, one humanity.

Thank you very much.

Mr Sam, thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for your advocacy, for your passion, your emotion, and your eloquence.

You really make us all think about why we're here.

Thank you also to all of our opening speakers.

This now formally concludes our opening ceremony.

We'll be transitioning to the first plenary.

29th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers opening session

Ms. Kazumi Ogawa - UNMAS DirectorAmbassador Tobias Privitelli - GICHD DirectorMr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix - UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace OperationsMs. Maryam Bukar Hassan - UN Global Advocate for Peace.

Ms. Kazumi Ogawa - UNMAS Director

Ambassador Tobias Privitelli - GICHD Director

Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix - UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations

Ms. Maryam Bukar Hassan - UN Global Advocate for Peace.