§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which states have signed and which states have now fully ratified or accepted the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction; and where the United Kingdom now stands on the full implementation of the convention. [HL1967]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)One hundred and twenty-six states have signed the Convention and54WA 11 have ratified it. We have arranged for the list of signatories to be placed in the Library of both Houses. Those that have ratified are Canada, Ireland, Mauritius, the Holy See, Turkmenistan, San Marino, Switzerland, Niue, Hungary, Belize and Trindad and Tobago. We intend to ratify the Convention as soon as the parliamentary schedule allows for the passage of the legislation necessary for us to implement the convention in full. A ban on exports did not require legislation and is already in place. We are in the process of destroying almost all our stocks, some 1 million weapons, and the work is scheduled for completion by 1 January 2000, well before the deadline in the Ottawa Convention (four years after its entry into force). As allowed for under the convention we shall retain around 4,000 landmines in order to be able to carry out training in demining.