In 2023 the United Nations Mine Action Service will acknowledge the day under the campaign “Mine Action Cannot Wait”, highlighting decades of contamination in Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam, as well as draw attention to recent explosive ordnance contamination.
The over-arching goal will be to bring attention to areas of the world that remain contaminated after many years, and where generations have changed their lives to avoid the threat.
Explosive ordnance contamination threatens lives, curtails freedom of movement, limits access to arable land, disenfranchises communities and above all instills fear and insecurity. It spreads terror, and longstanding contamination internalizes this terror. The most affected are the most vulnerable populations.
This campaign makes it clear that the eradication of all landmines cannot wait. Whether it is new contamination in Colombia, Myanmar, Ukraine or Yemen, or old contamination, in Cambodia, Iraq or Viet Nam, clearance must be completed by mine action actors and States Parties of the Mine Ban Convention. It is a human problem.
