Explosive remnants of war and mines other than anti-personnel mines: Global survey 2003-2004.

Explosive remnants of war and mines other than antipersonnel mines: Global survey 2003-2004, a project of Landmine Action (UK), Actiongroup Landmine.de, and Mines Action Canada, publ. by Landmine Action, 2005, ISBN 0-9536717-9-8, 192 pp. Available online at http://www.landmineaction.org/resources/UKWGLM.pdf.

This report examines the impact of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and mines other than anti-personnel mines (MOTAPM) on civilian populations internationally. It is made up of 88 summary reports on individual countries or disputed territories affected by these contaminants. General findings and conclusions with respect to ERW and MOTAPM are presented in two separate sections at the beginning of the report.

ERW, as examined in this report, means explosive ordnance that is left in the post-conflict environment. It does not mean landmines, but includes instead all the other forms of conventional explosive weaponry, such as mortar bombs, rockets, grenades, artillery shells and air-dropped bombs. ERW, as a term, is now formalized in Protocol V of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) as "unexploded ordnance and abandoned explosive ordnance" where these in turn are defined as follows:

* unexploded ordnance (UXO) is "explosive ordnance that has been primed, fused, armed, or otherwise prepared for use and used in an armed conflict and that may have been fired, dropped, launched or projected and should have exploded but failed to do so."

* abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) is "explosive ordnance that has not been used during a conflict, and has been left behind unprotected or dumped by a party to an armed conflict, and which is no longer under control of the party that left it behind or dumped it. Abandoned explosive ordnance may or may not have been primed, fused, armed or otherwise prepared for use."

The term MOTAPM does not have a formal definition but is a cumbersome short-form for anti-vehicle mines (also called anti-tank mines).

This report is part of an ongoing effort by nongovernmental organizations and international organizations to support discussions on the post-conflict impact of mines and ordnance within international humanitarian law in general and within the CCW in particular. The Second Review Conference to the CCW in December 2001 established an open-ended Group of Governmental Experts with separate coordinators to address the issues of ERW and MOTAPM. In 2003, an additional Protocol (Protocol V) was agreed within the CCW that contains obligations regarding record-keeping, retention, and transmission of information regarding ordnance use as well as obligations on the post-conflict clearance, removal and destruction of ERW.

Landmine Action, Actiongroup Landmine.de, and Mines Action Canada continue to advocate for improved preventive measures and remedial responses to protect civilians in the aftermath of conflict. (Project Ploughshares is a member of Mines Action Canada.)