Mine Action

Victim assistance aims to « repair » the injustices suffered by mine victims. It includes a number of fields of action such as medical care, physical rehabilitation, social and economic integration, political initiatives in favour of people with disabilities and social and sanitary supervision.

Humanitarian mine clearance enables communities threatened by antipersonnel landmines and unexploded ordnances (UXO) to return to a normal life. Displaced populations returning to their homeland after a conflict and farmers whose land has been polluted by mines are among the people the most at risk. Mine clearance involves several key elements: locating mines and UXOs with the use of metal detectors or dogs, establishing boundaries around the polluted areas, recuperating and destroying the mines and UXOs. Handicap International carries out mine clearance programs in Mozambique, Bosnia and Kosovo. In Kosovo, our team of specialists also provides training in mine clearance techniques to local agencies.

Mine Risk Education (MRE) projects aim to reduce the risk of accidents by raising the awareness of the local population to the danger of mines and UXOs and by encouraging the use of simple prevention strategies adapted to their daily lives.

In addition to its humanitarian and technical responses to the landmine problem, Handicap International has also been a leader in the creation of an international movement to ban antipersonnel landmines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)
The ICBL was launched in 1992 by six NGOs, one of which being Handicap International. Today, over 1 400 organizations from 91 countries have joined this Campaign. It is coordinated by a committee of 13 NGOs*. This Campaign has achieved incredible milestones in five years and has brought about the ratification by 123 States Treaty to ban the use, stock, production and transfer of antipersonnel landmines and to ensure their destruction. The Campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

The Cluster Munitions Coalition
Since 2003, Handicap International has been involved in the fight to ban cluster bombs. The organization campaigns as part of the Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) in favor of the complete eradication of these weapons which openly violate international humanitarian law.