Africa-Press – Angola. Angola has participated, since Monday, in the 20th Meeting of States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty Convention, which addresses, among various topics, the ban on the use, storage, production and transfer of anti-personnel land mines and their destruction. .
The meeting, which will take place until tomorrow from Geneva (Switzerland), is evaluating the level of implementation of the Convention, its degree of universalization, the dissemination of principles, taking into account the means of accession and ratification, cooperation between States and Cooperative Compliance.
According to a note from the press service of the Permanent Mission of Angola to the United Nations Offices in Geneva, the Angolan side will be represented at the event by a high-level delegation, headed by the director-general of the National Agency for Action against the Mines (ANAM), Leonardo Sapalo.
During the thematic debates, the document says, the National Mine Action Agency (ANAM) will present the country’s advances and challenges in this matter, with a focus on the work plan for the materialization of Article 5 of the Ottawa Convention. , regarding the clearing of all anti-personnel mines and the efforts of the Angolan State to assist victims of explosive devices.
The 20th Meeting, chaired by the Colombian Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Alícia Arango Olmos, was preceded by inter-sectoral meetings that marked the intermediate point in the implementation of the Oslo Plan of Action (PAO), also used to reflect on the achievements and assess how it is being implemented.
On that occasion, a balance was made of the areas that need more attention. More than 80 percent of UN member countries, the note says, have ratified the Convention and agreed not to use anti-personnel mines, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile and maintain or transfer them.
States Parties have also agreed not to assist, encourage or induce others in any way to take part in any activity prohibited by the Convention, which was opened for signature in Ottawa on 3 December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1997. from 1999.
The Ottawa Treaty stipulates that States parties must destroy stockpiled anti-personnel mines within four years and demining affected areas under their jurisdiction or control within ten years.
Data from the National Mine Action Agency (ANAM) indicate that demining in Angola will only be completed in 2028. Until last year, the country had a record of 71 square kilometers (1,102 areas) still mined. During the signing of the 2014-2019 Maputo Declaration, Angola had committed to complete demining by 2025.
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