Foreign NGOs & civil society activists start petition called Global Initiative for Mine-Free World
A group of foreign NGOs and civil society activists started a petition called Global Initiative for a Mine-Free World, Azernews reports.
The petition was announced on the Jotform international platform as part of the international campaign World for Peace in the Caucasus. The petition states that landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) pose a serious threat to the health, life and safety of civilians, and that landmines continue to kill and maim people even after conflicts have ended. Landmines cause lifelong disability and become a tragedy for families.
The campaign addresses the UN and declares that 60 million people in the world are still under the threat of landmines. The Lao People's Democratic Republic, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Vietnam are among the countries most polluted by landmines in the world.
In addition to various countries, a large space was allocated to Azerbaijan as well. It is reported that Azerbaijan suffers a lot from the landmine problem. In the last 30 years, more than 3,400 people became victims of landmines in Azerbaijan. Some 90 percent of them are civilians.
The authors of the campaign declare that Armenia planted landmine in the territories of Azerbaijan, and this process did not stop even after the 44-day war in 2020. The situation was brought under control only after Azerbaijan established a border crossing point on the Lachin road. The authors of the petition are horrified that as a result of the last anti-terrorist measures carried out on September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan discovered that at least half a million additional mines were placed by the remnants of the Armenian armed forces along the 480 km line. The authors of the petition demanded that Armenia should immediately hand over the maps of newly buried mines to the state of Azerbaijan.
Foreign NGOs and civil society activists welcomed President Ilham Aliyev's initiative to announce the goal of Mine-Free World as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal of the UN. They called on the UN to increase its attention to the global mine problem.
The appeal caused serious resonance, despite its new announcement, more than 100 civil society activists from about 10 countries have already declared that they joined the global mobilization campaign against landmines and supported the global solution to this problem.
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