Policy

The Republic of Colombia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 6 September 2000, and became a State Party on 1 March 2001.

Law 759, which took effect on 25 July 2002, serves as Colombia’s implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty.[1] Colombia reports that activities prohibited by the treaty are criminalized by its Penal Code.[2] It has also enacted laws on victim assistance, land restitution, and mine clearance.[3]

Colombia submitted its most recent Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report on 30 April 2019, which outlined additional provisions amended regarding mine clearance standards.[4]

Colombia has made significant contributions to the Mine Ban Treaty at the highest levels, including by hosting the Second Review Conference in Cartagena in November–December 2009. Colombia has participated in the three other review conferences in 2004, 2014 and 2019, and every Meeting of States Parties, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018. Colombia has also attended all of the treaty’s intersessional meetings in Geneva since 1999, most recently in June 2019.

In 2018–2019, Colombia served on the Mine Ban Treaty’s Committee on Article 5 (mine clearance implementation).[5]

In September 2016, the government of Colombia concluded a peace accord with the country’s main non-state armed group (NSAG), the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP) that has resulted in a major effort to clear mine-affected areas.[6]

Colombia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Colombian Campaign against Landmines (Campaña Colombiana contra Minas, CCCM) works to address the country’s extensive landmine problem.[7]

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Colombia’s State Military Industry (Industria Militar, INDUMIL) ceased production of antipersonnel mines in September 1998 and destroyed its production equipment on 18 November 1999.[8]

The government of Colombia is not known to have ever exported antipersonnel mines.

Colombia reported completion of the destruction of its stockpile of 18,531 antipersonnel mines on 24 October 2004.[9]

Colombia has retained the same number of mines for training purposes since 2007. It declared a total of 586 MAP-1 mines retained for training purposes in its 2009 Article 7 report and has never provided a number in subsequent reports, but has instead stated that there has been “no change” to the information previously provided.[10] Colombia last destroyed or consumed mines in training activities in 2006, when 300 retained mines were destroyed in three separate events.[11]

Colombia has not reported in detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties, but in 2011, Colombia informed the Monitor that the mines were “used for training the humanitarian demining units [of the armed forces] in the use of equipment for mine clearance.”[12]

Production and use by non-state armed groups

Both the FARC and the National Liberation Army (Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) have manufactured antipersonnel landmines as well as remotely-controlled improvised landmines. Colombia’s Article 7 reports contain detailed information on at least 12 different types of mines produced by NSAGs, including antipersonnel, antivehicle, and Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines, some fitted with antihandling devices.[13]

The Colombian government agency responsible for humanitarian demining (Descontamina) attributed responsibility for recent landmine use to residual or dissident FARC forces for 228 mine incidents in 2019, and to ELN forces for 212 mine incidents in 2019. An additional 68 mine incidents occurred where the responsible group was unknown. In total, 508 new mine incidents were reported in Colombia in 2019.[14]

Additionally, in late 2019 and early 2020, media reports of Colombian Army seizures of antipersonnel landmines from armed groups, were attributed to dissident factions of FARC, the ELN, the Popular Liberation Army (El Ejército Popular de Liberación, EPL), and other unidentified armed groups.[15] On 29 August 2019, a small contingent of former FARC leaders announced that they were entering a “new stage of armed struggle.”[16] In August 2019, Human Rights Watch interviewed local residents and organizations in the Catatumbo region, who made allegations that the ELN and EPL were emplacing mines in rural areas.[17]

From 1999 through 2016, Landmine Monitor reported extensive use of landmines in Colombia by FARC and by other NSAGs.

On 24 November 2016, FARC and the Colombian government signed a final agreement committing both parties to end their long-running armed conflict and build peace, including through mine clearance.[18] FARC ex-combatants established a civil organization in 2017 to contribute to survey and mine clearance activities.[19]

An October 2017 ceasefire agreement between the government of Colombia and the ELN included a commitment not to use antipersonnel landmines, however the ceasefire expired without renewal in 2018.[20]

The CCCM continues to encourage NSAGs in Colombia to halt mine use through direct messaging by community radio. The CCCM messages request directly to armed actors not to lay mines, which are not only prohibited but also indiscriminately affect the civilian population. The CCCM radio broadcasts provide details of the number of landmine victims in each region and reinforce existing risk education messages. These messages are transmitted on community radio stations in areas where the CCCM also undertakes clearance activities, in some of the worst-affected areas of the country. In many cases these messages are transmitted on an ongoing basis at the most accessible hour. These stations are not corporately owned but are managed by local communities, who have provided feedback to the CCCM that the broadcasts are indeed heard by armed actors.[21]