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What is Mine Action?
Mine action makes the world safe from landmines.
But it involves more than simply getting rid of these deadly, dangerous
weapons. Mine action also focuses on relieving the human suffering
caused by landmines, and addresses the impact of these weapons have
on children and their families who live in areas where landmines have
been placed.
Landmines and UXO do more than hurt
and kill people, they cause great damage to the entire area where
they have been used. Their presence
makes it difficult for countries to recover from war and armed conflicts
and for people to begin to rebuild and live freely. Mine Action means
exploring the landmine problem from many angles, and helping solve
it in a connected way.
According to the United Nations, the
five core components of mine action are:
An integrated approach (which combines the
activities listed above) is needed in mine action because mine clearance
is a slow and costly process. Unfortunately,
all the landmines and UXO cannot always be identified and removed
before people who’ve been displaced by conflict return to their
communities. This makes mine risk education and survivors’ assistance
very important. Mine
risk education helps educate the population
about the danger of landmines, so they can learn what to watch out
for and to avoid being hurt. Victim’s
assistance provides help and rehabilitation
for survivors who have been injured in mine or UXO related accidents.
Stockpile destruction
destroys existing landmines which have never been “placed”
as weapons, and therefore reduces the global numbers of mines in existence.
Advocacy
makes sure that national governments respect international laws that
call for the destruction OF these landmines, and prevent the use of
new landmines and other weapons of war.
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