HC Deb 26 March 2004 vol 419 cc1122-3W
Mr. Gardiner

: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent steps his Department has taken to promote the Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. [163208]

Mr. Rammell

: We are committed to promoting the Convention in the lead up to its first Review Conference in Nairobi at the end of this year. Following a comprehensive lobbying campaign of those states not party to the Convention in 2003, Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials will be actively participating in several regional seminars and workshops aimed at promoting the Convention and increasing the number of States Parties. They include events in Vienna, Tokyo and Vilnius.

We also participate in the informal intersessional meetings of the Convention and are members of both the Universalisation and Mobilisation Contact Groups. A UK official is Chair of the Sponsorship Programme in Geneva, which is vital in facilitating the attendance of heavily mine-affected countries to these meetings.

In addition to mine action funding provided by the Department for International Development, we have provided donations to the Convention's International Support Unit based in Geneva and to Landmine Monitor, an annual international publication produced by the International Campaign To Ban Landmines.

Mr. Gardiner

: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with countries which are not signatories to the Ottawa Convention about their signing up to the Convention. [163404]

Mr. Rammell

: The Government considers that the best way of combating the production, use, stockpiling or transfer of anti-personnel landmines is to persuade as many countries as possible to sign the Ottawa Convention. The United Kingdom was among the first states to ratify the Convention and we continue to urge others to do the same. During 2003 we undertook, through our diplomatic missions a comprehensive lobbying exercise of those states not party to the Convention, urging their ratification or accession at the earliest opportunity. This exercise was part of our activities in the Ottawa Convention's Universalisation Contact Group. We have built on this exercise in 2004 with a more targeted approach and hope to use the various regional events being held in the run up to the Nairobi Review Conference to encourage non-States Parties to sign the Convention.