A treaty weakened by contemporary reality

At the international conference "Rethinking the Ottawa Convention 2025", held in Zagreb, several speakers questioned the current relevance of the Ottawa Convention.

How can we explain the lack of accountability of aggressor states for civilian casualties caused by anti-personnel mines? And what needs to change to adapt international security mechanisms to modern conflicts?

Yuri Hudimenko, a Ukrainian military engineer, summed up the feeling of frustration among many affected countries. While Ukraine has destroyed more than three million mines since joining the treaty, some states have chosen to strengthen their arsenals instead of complying with international law.

According to him, the current framework creates an imbalance: countries that respect the treaty find their defense capabilities limited, while aggressors, who do not recognize any norms, benefit from impunity.

In 2025, Poland, Finland, the Baltic States and Ukraine announced their withdrawal, judging that the convention — conceived in post-Cold War enthusiasm — no longer meets current geopolitical realities.

Russia, China and the United States have never committed to it, leaving the burden of compliance to the most vulnerable signatories.

Ukraine: A daily life marked by the invisible threat

According to Ruslan Misiunia, a representative of the Kharkiv Mine Clearance Coordination Center, nearly 40% of the region could be contaminated. Since the start of the Russian invasion, nearly 100 people have been killed and more than 400 injured by mines.

For the residents, fear is constant: even playing in the yard can become deadly.

Ukrainian MP Anna Skorohod explained that Kyiv could no longer respect a treaty that makes no distinction between aggressor and victim.

While Russia mines more than 20% of Ukrainian territory without any international constraints, Ukraine is also forced to finance the demining. For Ukraine, "Russia creates the danger, but it is the international partners who pay to eliminate it."

Croatia: a success story after three decades, but a clear warning

Croatia, the host country of the conference, represents a long-term model.

Željko Romić, a demining expert, recalled that more than 40 companies and one public enterprise have worked for years to eliminate mines left over from Balkan conflicts — some dating back to World War II.

The country hopes to be officially declared mine-free by 2026, proof that such a process requires decades of coordinated effort, funding and technical rigor.

Former Defense Minister Luka Bebić pointed out that the Ottawa Convention was designed for a time when the major powers should have played their part — which they did not.

Today, more and more European states are reassessing their position.

Moldova: a gap between the treaty and current technologies

Sergey Chilivnik, head of the Moldovan Mine Clearance Training Centre, stressed the profound transformation of modern mines: remote-controlled systems, camouflaged devices, devices placed in civilian areas.

According to him, the Convention covers weapons from the past, but not those used in current conflicts.

He calls for the creation of an international working group to modernize the treaty, and affirms that Moldova is ready to strengthen its cooperation with Ukraine.

Azerbaijan: Mines designed to target civilians

Hafiz Azimzade, a representative of the Azerbaijani demining agency and himself a victim of a mine in 2021, described the deliberate use of anti-personnel mines in civilian areas.

In Karabakh, nearly a million displaced people still cannot return home, as the maps provided by Armenia cover only a small portion of the contaminated territory.

The total cost of demining is estimated at $25 billion, and no responsibility is assumed by those who laid the mines.

For Azimzade, "any future reform must incorporate the notion of the responsibility of the aggressors."

Africa: The enduring scars of the colonial past

African experts have pointed out that several countries on the continent remain contaminated by the millions of mines laid during the colonial period — notably by France in Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania.

Although Paris ratified the Convention in 1998, the treaty does not provide any mechanism specifically addressing colonial legacies, leaving these States to face the problem alone.

In Nigeria, the remnants of the Biafran war are now mixed with improvised explosive devices installed by Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa.

These unmapped mines continue to kill civilians, often children and women.

Mauritania, for its part, hopes to achieve mine-free status by 2028–2029, despite the presence of almost undetectable devices such as the APID-51.

Europe: A new strategic awareness

The simultaneous withdrawal of several EU and NATO members has profoundly shaken the project of a Europe completely free of mines.

The Baltic and Nordic states stress that their decision is motivated not by abandoning humanitarian principles, but by the need to respond to Russian aggression.

Romania remains committed to the treaty, but is concerned about regional security developments.

Germany: Modernize the law instead of abandoning it

German-Ukrainian journalist Boris Nemirovsky pointed out that the Convention must be adapted to a world dominated by drones, autonomous systems and self-destructing mines.

Berlin is therefore proposing to review the legal definition of anti-personnel mines and to integrate mechanisms obliging aggressors to finance demining operations.

In Ukraine, between 139,000 and 174,000 km² are contaminated, an unprecedented level that exceeds the treaty's forecasts.

A moral imperative for the future

In Zagreb, participants concluded that the problem is not the humanitarian spirit of the Convention, but its inability to evolve.

To remain relevant, it must stop penalizing victims and start holding perpetrators accountable.

The challenge is immense, but one thing is certain: the issue of anti-personnel mines is no longer a thing of the past — it now conditions the future of international security and justice.