Updated - Proposed Mine Ban Treaty Withdrawal: Response from Humanitarian Disarmament Campaigns
The following statement was issued on March 19, 2025, also available in Deutsch, español, and français. Additional endorsing organizations have been added and are listed further below.*
As global civil society coalitions working to reduce the catastrophic impact of war through humanitarian disarmament, we express grave concern that the ministers of defense from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have called on their countries to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty. Withdrawal would increase the risk of civilian death and injury from an indiscriminate weapon of limited military utility. It would also threaten decades of progress on disarmament and international humanitarian law more broadly.
The Mine Ban Treaty laid the foundation for “humanitarian disarmament,” which seeks to reduce arms-inflicted human suffering and environmental harm. Since its adoption in 1997, the treaty has saved many thousands of lives, prevented tens of thousands of life-changing injuries, and remediated the harm experienced by survivors through prohibitions on antipersonnel landmines and obligations to destroy stockpiles, clear minefields, and assist victims. The Mine Ban Treaty has further inspired cooperative efforts to establish norms governing other weapons. States, civil society, and international organizations have collaborated to address the humanitarian impacts of autonomous weapons systems, cluster munitions, and nuclear weapons, as well as the arms trade and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
While the states considering withdrawal from the Mine Ban Treaty have legitimate security concerns, abandoning a cornerstone of international law that underpins the protection of civilians during and after conflict is not the answer. At a time of heightened global conflict and challenges to multilateralism, states should recommit to humanitarian disarmament’s people-centered and cooperative approach. They should join forces to defend unequivocally the international law they collectively created and the humanitarian principles it embodies.
The Mine Ban Treaty laid the foundation for “humanitarian disarmament,” which seeks to reduce arms-inflicted human suffering and environmental harm. Since its adoption in 1997, the treaty has saved many thousands of lives, prevented tens of thousands of life-changing injuries, and remediated the harm experienced by survivors through prohibitions on antipersonnel landmines and obligations to destroy stockpiles, clear minefields, and assist victims. The Mine Ban Treaty has further inspired cooperative efforts to establish norms governing other weapons. States, civil society, and international organizations have collaborated to address the humanitarian impacts of autonomous weapons systems, cluster munitions, and nuclear weapons, as well as the arms trade and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
While the states considering withdrawal from the Mine Ban Treaty have legitimate security concerns, abandoning a cornerstone of international law that underpins the protection of civilians during and after conflict is not the answer. At a time of heightened global conflict and challenges to multilateralism, states should recommit to humanitarian disarmament’s people-centered and cooperative approach. They should join forces to defend unequivocally the international law they collectively created and the humanitarian principles it embodies.
Signed by the following humanitarian disarmament campaigns:
Additional endorsing organizations:
International and regional organizations
National organizations
Argentina
- International Campaign to Ban Landmines-Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC)
- Control Arms
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
- International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW)
- Stop Killer Robots
Additional endorsing organizations:
International and regional organizations
- Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
- Human Rights Watch
- International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW)
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
- Nukewatch
- Pacific Network on Globalisation
- Pax Christi International
- Saferworld
- SEHLAC (Red de Seguridad Humana para América Latina y el Caribe)
- Soka Gakkai International
- United Against Inhumanity
- Virtual Planet Africa
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
National organizations
Argentina
- APP (Asociación para Políticas Públicas)
- Hunter Peace Group
- Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
- Pax Christi Flanders
- Grupo de Práticas em Direitos Humanos e Direito Internacional
- Mines Action Canada
- Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines
- Réseau d'Action Sur les Armes Légères en Afrique de l'Ouest (RASALAO-CI)
- ICAN France
- Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft – Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen (DFG-VK)
- Frauennetzwerk für Frieden e. V. / Women's Network for Peace, Germany
- Rete Italiana Pace Disarmo
- ANT-Hiroshima
- PAX
- Aotearoa New Zealand Campaign on Military Spending
- ICAN Aotearoa
- Peace Movement Aotearoa
- Norwegian People's Aid
- Norwegian Physicians against Nuclear Weapons
- Perú por el Desarme
- beHuman
- Centre Delàs d'Estudis per la Pau
- Comisión General Justicia y Paz
- The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds- och Skiljedomsföreningen)
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Sweden (IKFF)
- WILPF Togo
- Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)
- Anethum Global
- Article 36
- Campaign Against Arms Trade
- Conflict and Environment Observatory
- DAWN
- Hampton Roads Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
- RootsAction
- The United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society
* last updated July 7, 2025
The Forum on the Arms Trade does not itself take positions.