Convention Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines press conference 20 November 2020

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much and I apologise for the delay.

I want to thank you very much for joining us today.

My name is Juan Carlo Juan and I'm the Director of the Secretariat or the Implementation Support Unit of the Anti Personnel Landmine Convention, known by many of you as the Mine Ban Treaty.

Ottawa Convention or its formal unit UN name the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Production, Stockpile and Transfer of Anti Personnel Minds and on their Destruction.

The convention was adopted in 1997 after an incredible campaign that include non government organisations, the ICRC, some UN agencies and a large number of like minded states.

For this the ICBL, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

In fact, one of those pioneer campaigners is here with us today.

In our press press conference today we hope to address a few items.

1 The stance of the state's parties to the convention as it refers to the growing use of anti personnel minds of an improvised nature sometimes revert referred to in its general name is IEDs or improvised explosive devices.

So now let's start with the President of the convention, Ambassador Osman Abu Fatima Adam Mohammed, Deputy Permit representative of Sudan, with an overall view of the convention and an update on the peace process and its links to mine action.

Ambassador, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here today.

For Sudan, it has been an honour to be entrusted by the international community to lead the work of one of the most relevant Unitarian disarmament, the instrument of our time.

It is 21st year of work since the Convention entered into force in 1999.

Sudan is only the 3rd African country after Algeria and Mozambique to lead the work of this international body and we feel extremely proud to do so in spite of the challenging circumstances.

The convention saw two states parties across the mine clearance finish line.

Chile and the United Kingdom are now part of those countries that has been able to say we are mind free.

Congratulations to Chile and UK.

For Chile this took 18 years, 10s of millions of dollars of it is on national resources and significant national coordination.

We congratulate them both.

After the UK and Chile, the number of state parties is still implementing mine clearance is now 31.

This is still a significant number.

Thankfully, a number of the of them could reach the Convention's ambition of becoming mine free by 2025 in as many countries as possible.

This includes countries as Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Pero, Zimbabwe, among others.

These countries could reach the finish line but only with the support of the international community.

We are afraid that the COVID-19 could affect some of this support, but we call among all the state parties and donors in particular to continue lending support to the Convention and to the states parties.

We must also keep in mind that many states that are not party to the Convention are also main affected.

So our efforts to promote the Convention and the norms must continue if we are to ensure that we achieve our objectives.

For mine affected countries, the COVID burden has been significant.

Sudan has one of the 61 mine affected state parties and one of thirty who have declared responsibility for a significant number of mine survivors, and that stands fully that some of these burdens are still significant.

In our case, COVID-19 has veered to others, such as the worst flooding in our recorded history, as were our meeting.

The international community noted that, as with other persons with disabilities, mine survivors in remote areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 measures.

They lack access to services, are in danger of being left out of risk and emergency plans as a whole.

We need better implementation, including from those in the position to assist, if we are to fulfil our promise to eliminate the suffering caused by these weapons.

During the week and overall of the past year, there has been a very strong common thread.

We heard it from the opening remarks of the **** Commissioner of the Human Rights, from UNHCR, from ICRC, ICBL and also from almost all States and non governmental organisations.

We agree that contamination by anti personnel minds, including those of an improvised nature that many of you simply known know it as IEDs was a great new ****** to human life and imbed sustainable development.

During this week it was clear that we as the state parties must stop thinking that only factory made mines fall under the obligation of this convention.

I would like to reflect on the **** Commissioner swears there are no such things as smart mines.

We agree lifting of any moratorium on the use of this or any other sort of minds is wrong by any state, even if such a state is not party to the Treaty and as it goes counter to the established norm in our national capacity.

One of the things we are proud of and are happy to report, as mentioned by the Minister of Defence of Sudan on Tuesday, on Monday actually and the Mine Action Centre Director on Wednesday, are our gains on mine actions.

As instrument of Peace.

Sudan, with the support of the Mine Action Services and the international community was able to to declare part of it is territories free of mines.

This was a historic moment and gave Sudan the confidence and encouragement to move forward towards our goal to reach a Sudan free of mines.

We soon realised that it also allowed us to make progress in the past of sustainable peace in in our country through constructive negotiations.

And as you know that on the 3rd of October, last October, Sudan government has signed the peace agreement with Revolutionary Front and other factions and that will hopefully bring lasting peace for the country.

This will leave the door open for Sudan.

I mean the peace agreement that has been already signed will leave the door open for Sudan Mine Action Programme to enter into clearance operation in the states of Blue Nile and S Kordofan in which the work will be doable.

After this agreement, Sudan is also undertaking clearance as good faith gesture in order to encourage the peace process.

The non state armed actors also have agreed as we have seen in a side event that has been hosted by Sudan during this meeting that with participation of Yasser Saeed Arman, one of the leaders of those actors has expressed their intention not not to use their anti Persian mine.

I told them they have never been using it even before and they got the assistance and cooperation of the Organisation of Geneva Coal which has been promoting the convention and storms among armed non state actors not to use anti Persian mines and to destroy any such weapons as part of the peace deal.

Main action in Sudan at this time is considered a top priority in order to promote and achieve peace as the clearance of mines will mean these lands will come back to the productivity to the and people will come to their normal life and this also will allow to the return of refugees and ID BS to their places back after the peace agreement.

This is being realised.

In this context, the Sudan National Mine Action Centre, in coordination with the UN Mine Action Service, deployed a clearance personnel to open humanitarian corridors and transit routes to facilitate the access of humanitarian aid to the areas of the Blue Nile State.

We confirm that we welcome the international organisation wishing to work in the field of mine action in Sudan in order to support our country's effort to comply with Article 5 of the Convention and to help us to reach our goal of Sudan free of mines by 2023.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Ambassador.

And it's a pleasure for the ISU to be able to support the presidency this year.

And we have a number of states that supports the ISU.

One of these states is Switzerland, which is also hosting this host of this week and who next week will switch from its role as Secretary General of the current meeting to that of the President of the Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which originally was going to take place in Lausanne but will now take place in the virtual mode here in Geneva.

Ambassador Felix Bauman, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland, is here to tell us more on Switzerland's view on their work on these conventions.

Ambassador, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

And let me start by expressing my gratitude to the presidency of our convention by Sudan.

And I would like to thank Ambassador Adam Mohammed in particular, not only for his commitment during this year, but particularly for taking the necessary decisions and, and, and putting in place the the procedures that allowed us to meet this week in a, in a, in a virtual way and, and allowed us to move forward despite the the pandemic.

The 4th Oslo Review Conference just about a year ago_the importance of the remaining challenges in order to achieve the goal of a world without anti personal minds.

And we have since then an ambitious action plan to enable us to move forward.

Our meeting is an important milestone.

It is the first opportunity this week for us to look within a formal framework on the implementation of this action plan and in particular to lay the foundations for assessing the progress made and the priorities for the coming year.

As the director said before Switzerland was was honoured to have assumed the function of the Secretary General of the of the meeting and actually under the anti personal mainland convention, the function of the Secretary General is always exercised by a representative of the country in which the the the conference takes place.

And so this year was a bit of course, a particular year as the, the, the meeting was held in a in a virtual format and only, only partly here in, in Geneva.

But in any event, Switzerland will continue to ensure that it can continue to, to house the convention in the best possible conditions and, and can contribute also to, to its influence.

And we will continue to actively support the convention, in particular by supporting the, the machinery that underpins it.

Now let me maybe, as, as the director said, switch to, to, to, to, to my other head, the head of the presidency of the CCM.

So we have now between this week and next week, back-to-back the, the meetings of, of these two conventions.

And I think we can really say these are are two success stories of multilateralism.

They're 2 success stories of humanitarian disarmament efforts to prohibit two types of weapons which for the discriminate nature cause unacceptable harm, especially to to civilian populations.

In, in in the case of, of, of of cluster munitions, the fact that they are often spread over wide areas means an increased likelihood of, of civilian victims.

But then also their **** failure rate means that hundreds of pamphlets become lethal devices.

And finally, this creates adverse economic and social consequences which hinder sustainable development.

As the director said in in his introductory remarks, Switzerland well has the honour to preside the the convention this year.

And the second review conference was actually scheduled to take place next week in in Lausanne.

But, but obviously with the situation we, we face, we had to, to, to adapt our plans.

But again, I think more than than ever, we, we need today multilateral solutions to cope with the challenges we we face.

And this is also means that we have to be flexible and to adapt to make multilateralism go go ahead and also for keeping the work going under the the convention.

And I, we owe, owe this to all women, to all men working on the ground to fulfil the provisions of the convention, the operators, the mining experts, those active in victim assistance, those educating on, on, on on the risks and, and, and so the review conference is, is of course also an important moment in the life of a convention because it takes place only every five years.

It allows us to, to, to, to stock, to take stock of, of what happened in the past five years, but also to adopt documents.

And obviously it's a symbolic, a highly symbolic moment.

So we decided to adapt in the following way and and the the all all states parties agreed to have the review conference in two parts to 1st part next week in a like like the the the meeting we have this weekend of the anti personal landmines fully virtual.

But then have a second part in a, in a hybrid way here in the Palais in Geneva as soon as we can meet early next year.

That will allow in the in the second step to have a, a **** level segment to to to give the the visibility that the convention deserves and also to adopt the key, the key documents.

2020 is actually an important year for the for the CCM.

It was it's a younger convention compared to the to the landmines, the anti personal landmines convention.

It commemorated this year 10th, it's 10th anniversary since entering into force on the 1st of August.

And another important milestone just a few a few weeks ago, a few days ago actually, was the vote on the CCM resolution in the first committee of the General Assembly, which for the very first time this resolution had no, no vote, no, no, no, no one, no state voted against this resolution, which still has to be confirmed by by the General Assembly.

The CCM achieved a lot over over the years, of course, 1.5 million stockpiled cluster munitions have been destroyed.

More than 530 square kilometres of land have been cleared and released to civilian use.

Education programmes have been put in place.

The Convention has since the beginning of pioneering and the comprehensive provision for victim assistance, which makes it an obligation for, for states to, to, to provide assistance to, to to victims.

We have victims participating in the work of the convention and certainly the, the, the, the, it goes, the achievements of the convention go go beyond the, the humanitarian realm as as it's implementation provides a, a, a strengthening of, of, of effective multilateralism and the rules based international order.

There are some some challenges ahead, but the convention is not as universal as the anti personal landmine convention.

So far 110 states have joined the convention.

Five years ago a goal was set to have 130 states by 2020.

So as you can see this has far from being reached.

So we will certainly during the review conference 11 important decision will.

Be to take measures to redouble those efforts which will allow to strengthen the the norm.

And I will stop by by saying that allegations over the past years on on different on different occasions of use of cluster munitions, with all the increased civilian casualties and the humanitarian impact this causes, shows, I mean, how, how important this this convention is.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

As I mentioned, this convention came about from a coalition of government and organisations.

One of these organisations, of course, is the ICRC, who continues to play a role, a strong role.

I now would like to invite Wen Zhu from the ICRC to provide us.

She is from Legal Adviser of the Arms Unit of the Legal Division of the ICRC.

And I'd like to invite her to take the floor and tell us a little bit about her views on leading organisations and how they ensure humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and other situations of violence.

When please, you have the floor.

Thank you for Carlos for giving me the floor at the outset.

On behalf of the ICRC, allow me to commend you Ambassador Muhammad for your skilful leadership and excellent sharing which is key to ensuring the success of the 18th Meeting of the State Parties of the Anti Personnel Minds and Convention.

Allow me also to commend Sudan's Presidency in steering the implementation of the conventions throughout the year despite the challenges brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

We also highly appreciate all the support, hard work and necessary arrangements made by the Intimidation Support Unit and that by Juan Carlos, the UNODA and students to make this meeting possible.

We are pleased to to participate in the meeting of the State parties, which took place in the inclusive and representative manner and provided a good platform to take stock of the progress of the Convention's implementation.

In particular, let us again congratulate Chile and the United Kingdom on the completion of my experience this year.

This demonstrated steady commitment to meeting obligations under the Convention and brought us closer to reaching the goal of a world free of antipersonal minds.

Indeed, this Convention is a true success.

It protects and will protect current and future generations from bats and injury caused by landmines.

Since its adoption, annual civilian casualties have been reduced by 90%.

Let me reiterate that anti personal minds struck civilians and combatants indiscriminately.

Long after war ends, landmines can go on killing and mining and disrupting livelihoods, sometimes for decades.

This is why the ICRC, based on its first hand experience providing humanitarian assistance for my victims worldwide, called for a ban on anti personal mines in 1994.

Working in partnership with States, the United Nations and international campaigns ban land mines.

We were an integral part of the process that led to the adoption of this remarkable treaty.

Despite the success of the Convention in the past 21 years for which the state parties are to be commended, challenges persist as Mr.

President has just pointed out, and there is much more freedom.

1st, we join the President and many states parties to urge those 33 states that are not yet party to the Convention to join without delay.

We strongly encourage them already now to renounce using, producing, transferring or stockpiling anti personal minds.

Second, during this meeting, we heard from State parties with clearance, victim assistance and other outstanding obligations, the implementation challenges they face, which are intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As always, the ICRC strives to assist the state parties in implement, including the Convention.

For example, in 2019, more than 414,800 persons with disabilities benefited from 223 ICRC supported projects through the fitting of artificial lens physiotherapy and psychosocial support.

The ICRC and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies also carried out initiatives to address the ****** posed by other contamination in 51 contexts, such as training in risk awareness and safe behaviour, data collection and information management.

In the coming years, the ICRC will continue to focus on and prioritise victim assistance, mining risk, education and reduction, and cooperating with partners specialised in clearance, among others.

As was mentioned by previous speakers, one particular challenge that requires of of our attention is the continued use of antipersonal minds of an improvised nature, often called IEDs, in several ongoing conflicts.

According to the Landmine Monitoring Report, the year 2019 was the fifth years in a row which recorded **** numbers of casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war, as civilians account for the vast majority of these casualties.

One of the reasons for this **** number of civilian casualties is the new use of antipersonal minds, including those of an improvised nature in at least six countries, plus unconfirmed allegations of use in 13 countries.

Improvised minds also make clearance operations more difficult, thus activating the risk documentary organisations working on the ground including the mining operators.

The ICRC has repeatedly called upon States Parties to confirm that all obligations of this connection apply equally to anti personal minds that are industrially manufactured and those of an improvised nature.

With respect, we welcome that the issue was addressed in the Hospital Action Plan that was adopted at the 4th year conference last year and we were pleased to hear during the this year's meeting many States Parties underscoring the urgency of heckling with this issue.

In view of the humanitarian consequences inflicted upon civilians, we urge state parties with improvised mining contamination to report on such contamination and remove these mines within the established deadlines without delay, handing their clearance, risk education and reduction programmes relating to these mines to be conducted in order to minimise risks post to civilians.

To conclude, we believe that through concerted efforts, a world free of anti personal minds is really enriched.

As stated by Doctor Reed Garconia, ICRC Vice President at the opening of this meeting of State parties, the Anti Personal Mind Bank Convention demonstrates that through partnerships between states, international organisations and civil society, bold and decisive action can solve collective problems.

It's time for action and there is not a moment.

Wait, thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Now let's turn to the United States with the head delegation of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines or the ICBLA 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Coal Laureate and Civil Society Coalition with members in over 100 countries.

Steve Goose is also the head of the Arms division of Human Rights Watch.

Steve, you have the floor.

Thanks very much, Juan Carlos, it's my pleasure to be here.

This is a, a good example of the partnership that brought the convention about many years ago, 21 years ago and and 30 years, if you go back to the beginning of the, of the campaign itself, where we have a true partnership between states parties and the ICRC, UN agencies and civil society under the banner of the international campaign to ban landmines.

So we appreciate you putting yourself together again.

I really wanted to start by echoing something that the ambassador that Ambassador Bauman pointed out, which is that this past week has shown that the mine ban treaty is a shining example of multilateralism.

It's multilateralism at its best, something that we need much more of in this world today.

It's characterised by a very large number of states, states parties, 164 states parties, more than 80% of the world's nations have come together working cooperatively toward a common humanitarian objective and doing so by trying to help each other achieve the goals of the Convention, helping each other to implement the Convention and doing so in partnership with the these other key actors that I talked about.

I want to mostly reflect on this past week.

[Other language spoken]

We congratulate, we congratulate the Sudanese ambassador for leading it so successfully.

[Other language spoken]

Back at the meeting was even held was a great achievement.

And we, we, we thank you want Carlos as well as all the states parties for being flexible enough and creative enough to make this happen.

We've had very wide participation.

I don't know if we've got an actual number of, of participants, but it's, it's certainly an impressive number.

And they've been very engaged and very positive, making clear that they still have the will to try and achieve all of the goals of the convention and doing so in a very cooperative way, positive way, while at the same time acknowledging that there's an awful lot still left to be done and that efforts have to be redoubled.

And that's exactly what we want from the States Parties.

Positive attitude, commitment to the convention, but recognition that there's still a lot of work to do.

Very importantly, States Parties reaffirmed the Mind Free 2025 objective.

This is something key that was agreed on at earlier meetings.

That needs to be the focus for the convention in the coming years where states parties are to the extent possible, going to try to achieve all of the major obligations of the convention by 2025, notably by being by finishing up clearance of contamination as well as destroying all stockpiled anti personnel mines.

The fact that this objective is is being reinforced is very important.

The highlight of the meeting was probably the announcements, as others have mentioned, the announcements by Chile and the UK that they have completed their clearance obligations.

I believe that brings the number of States parties who have finished their clearance to 31, bringing us ever closer to the 2025 goal.

Another highlight for us in the ICBL was the degree to which States Parties were acknowledging the need to increase assistance for the victims and the communities that are affected by anti personnel mine contamination.

This is an area that states parties have not done enough on.

They've made a lot of oral commitments, but we haven't seen the rubber hit the road.

If you'll allow that expression, only some 8% of funding for overall mine action goes to victim assistance.

A lot more can be done in that respect.

And we're we're hoping to see that the COVID-19 situation has only exacerbated the situation for victim assistance with making it ever more difficult for survivors to reach and have access to their services.

Also, we see in in too many states parties that that the survivors don't have access to economic opportunities and this is something that needs to be a a real focus for states parties in the years going forward.

Force 2025 doesn't apply to victim assistance.

[Other language spoken]

The biggest disappointment of the week was Eritrea and its failure to submit an extension request for its clearance.

It is going to be in violation of the convention when its deadline comes up at the end of this year.

Deadline for clearance and and if it doesn't submit an extension request, it will be in in violation.

It didn't even show up this week, much less submit the necessary extension request.

The ICBL raised a number of other compliance concerns.

In general, compliance with this convention has been excellent, especially with regards to the prohibitions on use and production transfer and stockpiling.

But there are other aspects where more needs to be done.

There are two states parties who have failed to meet their stockpile destruction deadlines.

They're they're, they're more than 10 years late in trying to finish.

That's Greece and Ukraine.

And they told us again this week that they still don't know when they're going to be able to finish.

You're allowed to retain mines for training under this convention, but there are too many states who are retaining these mines without ever using them for the permitted purposes, which looks an awful lot lot like they're still just stockpiling the mines.

Transparency reporting is way down.

The requirement to have national implementation measures is not being met.

Well, there's still an awful lot of work to do to to bring countries into full compliance, but overall the convention has been a a a great success.

It has created a very strong stigma against the weapon.

You see that even most non states parties, those who aren't member states to the mine ban treaty are in de facto compliance with all the major provisions.

In recent years, only one government has one government armed force has been using anti personnel minds and that's in Myanmar and we have a recent report of possible use by North Korea as well that we're still investigating.

But it's it's been extremely rare for government forces to use mines.

On the other hand, we still have used by non state actors, non state armed groups in a number of countries, at least six in the past year.

And and this is used primarily as when took note of improvised anti personnel mines which have become a major problem in today's world.

We had, I'll just close by noting that we had, I was told 10 non states parties participating in the meeting this past week.

I took note of at least seven who made remarks during the course of the week, all seven of which expressed their support for the objectives of the convention.

They each have their own reasons for why they don't want to sign on the dotted line yet, but they've all expressed support for the for the objectives and aims of the convention, including Myanmar, which was a a bit of a surprise.

They complained about rebels using mines in in Myanmar but didn't didn't fess up to their own use.

But the fact that they came and spoke and talked about the importance of mine action was, I thought, interesting development.

I'll stop there and look forward to taking some questions.

I thank you very much, Steve.

Yes, 112 delegations at the at the meeting and thank you very much.

And I agree with you.

The partnership between the international, national organisations, NGOs and the States is one of the foundations of this convention.

So members of the press, thank you very much for being with us.

And please allow me to now turn the floor to you for any questions that you may have.

I don't know if you can see any hands.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, which file?

Oh, there we go.

[Other language spoken]

Personal and.

Thank you very much for the question.

I wonder if I could direct that question to OH.

Sorry, I thought there was translation.

Well, the the the question is in a sit to be short and do is would correct me.

It's in the situation where conflict is ongoing and you have non state actors that are still using anti personnel minds.

Colombia is a country that you know, submitted an extension.

How do we look at that situation in terms of a country that has a deadline, but it has actors that are still using anti personnel minds?

And I wonder if I could go to perhaps perhaps the the when could you take feel that question?

And then I'll ask does anyone else have any any input into your answer?

[Other language spoken]

All right, was muted.

Thank you for for for for for this question very briefly and Article 5 of the convention.

Each state party must destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti personal minds, including manufacturers and those of improvised nature in then areas.

And there is jurisdictional control as soon as possible, but no later than 10 years after the entry into force of this connection for that state.

So so of course, pending the my clearance efforts should be made to identify the my areas and as a mark monitors protected by fencing etcetera.

So if so, so indeed the the obligation of each state party under this convention for mine clearance will be as soon as possible, but no later than 10 years after after the convention enters into enters into force for that state.

However, if the state cannot complete the destruction of in place mines within 10 years due to various reasons, including, for example, if mine areas is not under its effective control, it may submit a request to the meeting of the state parties or review conference for an extension.

This is the case, for example, of Columbia, that which has submitted extension requests to to, to, to this year's meeting.

Yeah, in, in our view, of course, the, the safety of the mining operators is also essential in, in, in the, on, on the past 2 was the the, the removal of these mines and also was the release of land to for, for future productive use.

So in this case it is understandable that that accession request may be, may be necessary.

However, it is also very important that for for state party that submitted the extension request for whatever reasons, it's important that especially such a special request is is coming with a costly detailed work plan.

And bear in mind that the the convention indeed requires each state party to finish the clearance job as soon as possible without delay.

Thank you very much.

When I wonder if you can go to I know we have a quick question from Robin Meard at the AFP.

If we could give the floor to AFP, yes, just to ask about the, the impact on children, these weapons, what is, what is the impact?

If you could summarise that for us and and do you think enough international attention is, is paid to the impact that these weapons continue to have on children?

Yes, thank you very much.

I wonder, Steve, if I could give that question to you.

Yes, I'm unmuted now, Yes, OK Yeah, it has a tremendous impact on children and we highlight that in our Landmine Monitor report, annual Landmine Monitor report in this past year, some 80% of casualties were civilians and almost half of those were children.

Children often times look at this as a, as something to play with.

They, they don't have proper education about the, the risks and they'll handle them and, and end up with injuries or, or, or death.

We try to put out a fact sheet each year for UNICEF and, and others who particularly care about this aspect of it.

So yes, it's, it's, it's, it's a good question and, and it's, it's, it's an area that we pay a lot of attention to.

Thank you, Steve.

I think to, to just compliment Steve's response, I think that children have, it's a lot have more difficulties in terms of support and require a lot more support as, as child survivors.

So the impact is, can be doubled for children and of course, disrupting their natural development as well.

I wonder if there's any more questions.

[Other language spoken]

Perhaps, Ambassador, would you like to take the first choice?

[Other language spoken]

First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues who joined me today in this, and especially the Secretary General, the His Excellency Ambassador Boom.

And we have been coordinating in this world since Oslo.

I'm happy for that and and thankful for this also.

And I would like also to thank ICRC and ICBL.

Both of them are very close partners to our work.

Thank you, Steve for joining us at that, at that day early in the morning from Washington.

And I'm, I'm sure this is something that should be appreciated and your role has been from the beginning very important for this convention.

And thanks for your kind words as well.

I would like to refer to the question on the use of anti personnel mines from non state actors and and I would like to reaffirm once again that what we have been saying always that the use of anti personnel mines by non state actors or even state party or state non party is condemned and prohibited in the convention.

And and this has been clearly manifested in our work since long time.

And during this year also I made a statement and you can find it in the website of the convention on the use of land mines by non state actors in Libya.

And that has been condemned by by the convention and and also by CPLI remember, and this is very importantly, this weapon should not be used at all.

And this is the end goal of our convention.

We are calling for to end, to end the world from this kind of scourge of land mines.

[Other language spoken]

And the issue of the children that also just like one has alluded to very importantly, yes, the suffering of a child of is, is a big saying that we should not leave it.

And and this is very important.

So the youth should not should be condemned for all and and once and for all.

And I would like to thank the opportunity.

Thank you everyone.

Yes, thank you very much.

And to the first question, even in conflict situation, there's things that can be done.

So the security situation may be may be a challenge, but there's also activities that can take place to protect the population.

[Other language spoken]

So I, I think I'll thank the members of the press for joining us and I'll thank Ambassador Bowman and Ambassador Fatima and Wen and Steve for joining us and I will close this press conference.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]