The 23rdmeeting of the National Committee for Humanitarian Action against Anti-Personnel Mines (CNAUMA) was held today. This advisory body is convened once a year at the instigation of the MAECI and is attended by the Departments and representatives of civil society involved in the ban on anti-personnel mines.
Introducing the work, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Emanuela del Re, confirmed the Italian support for the implementation of the Ottawa Conventions for the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and sale of anti-personnel mines, as well as the Oslo Convention on cluster munitions.
Recalling that Italy holds the chairmanship of the Committee on Victim Assistance under the Ottawa Convention in 2020, Vice Minister Del Re outlined the strategic lines for 2020 in the management of the “National Fund for Humanitarian Mine Clearance”, which counts on a budget of about 4 million euros in 2020 and whose activities will mainly focus, with an integrated approach, on land clearance, risk education and victim assistance with particular attention to the economic and social dimension of mine action. In particular, initiatives are planned in the most deteriorated crisis theatres, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, including Libya, Yemen and Syria.
During her speech, the Vice Minister also expressed regret at the US Administration’s announcement to break the de facto moratorium on the use of anti-personnel mines by its military contingents, which until now only applied to the Korean Peninsula. “Although Washington is not a party to the Convention, this is a negative signal,” the Vice Minister stated, “which the European Union has also stigmatised.
Eventually, the Vice Minister recalled her participation in the “National Day of Civilian Victims of War and Conflict”, of which she stressed the importance in the activities of civil society, and confirmed her commitment so that the so-called “divestment bill”, which prohibits financial intermediaries from supporting any credit operation to companies, based in Italy or abroad, concerning anti-personnel mines, munitions and cluster submunitions, can continue its parliamentary process.