Throughout all the reports and articles on the war in Ukraine, the armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere in the world, the use of antipersonnel mines is rarely mentioned. It took volunteer Canadian fighters hired by the Ukrainian army to confess their troubles at planting such devices for this reality to make the front page of The Press last August.
Morbid stratagems are always present to hide mines in parks, in houses abandoned by families in disarray or even in corpses. We have seen the beaches of Odessa closed to local populations for security reasons.
The use of these insidious war engines with disastrous impacts buried in the ground, which often explode long after the end of the conflict, when we no longer expect it, cannot go unmentioned. Today, there are still millions of them, hidden in war-affected countries, ready to explode.
Many of our fellow citizens, at home, in Quebec and in Canada, come from countries where war has wreaked terrible havoc. We live together barely imagining their paths.
Mines caused more than 7,000 direct victims in 2020, or 2,492 dead and 4,561 injured to be more precise. Nearly two thirds of the victims must now live with permanent sequelae.
On average, this represents about twenty victims of anti-personnel mines every day. Of this number, approximately 80% are civilians, 50% of whom are children.
After the humanitarian emergency, we cannot leave behind the mutilated victims, injured for life: we must make them prostheses to replace their missing limbs, to give them a chance to resume the course of their lives. At the time, and still today, Humanity and Inclusion is the only organization whose specific mission is to remain on the ground to provide assistance to these victims who must now live with a disability.
And because we are outraged and want to change the course of things in the long term, we have been making sustained efforts for 40 years in prevention and advocacy in favor of the rights of people with disabilities.
This is why, in the 1990s, we were active in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The Campaign culminated in the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, 25 years ago on December 3, under the able leadership of Canada’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy. Our constant determination enabled us, with our partners at the time, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.
After more than 70 countries, including Canada, meeting in Dublin, ratified a historic agreement on November 18 to prohibit the bombing of populated civilian areas, Humanity and Inclusion Canada feels particularly challenged to reaffirm the importance of subscribing to the rules agreed to in the Ottawa Treaty. We cannot and should not remain indifferent to Treaty transgressions, including new uses of anti-personnel mines in Ukraine. It is a question of humanity.
Last year, our 5,000 team members provided assistance in logistical deployment, emergency, rehabilitation, social reintegration to more than 12 million beneficiaries worldwide. The news scrolls and passes, but the mines unfortunately remain. Let us ensure that the efforts of 1997 do not remain in vain.