Title: A resolution recognizing April 4, 2022, as the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, and reaffirming the leadership of the United States in eliminating landmines and unexploded ordnance.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution reaffirms the commitment of the United States to support international humanitarian efforts to eliminate landmines and unexploded ordnance. It also affirms its support to intensify efforts to clear mined areas to the fullest extent possible by 2025.
Finally, the resolution reaffirms the goals of the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 575 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 575

Recognizing April 4, 2022, as the International Day for Mine Awareness 
 and Assistance in Mine Action, and reaffirming the leadership of the 
    United States in eliminating landmines and unexploded ordnance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

               April 4 (legislative day, March 31), 2022

Mr. Leahy submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing April 4, 2022, as the International Day for Mine Awareness 
 and Assistance in Mine Action, and reaffirming the leadership of the 
    United States in eliminating landmines and unexploded ordnance.

Whereas landmines and unexploded ordnance threaten the safety, health, and lives 
        of civilian populations and create humanitarian and development 
        challenges that have serious and lasting social, economic, and security 
        consequences for affected populations;
Whereas demining and clearance of unexploded ordnance enables displaced people 
        to return to their homes and has a direct impact on development outcomes 
        such as food security, school attendance, and economic development;
Whereas people in at least 60 countries and other areas are at risk from mines 
        and unexploded ordnance in their communities;
Whereas more than 125,000 deaths and injuries resulting from anti-personnel or 
        anti-vehicle mines and other explosive remnants of war have been 
        recorded in the Landmine Monitor database since 2001, and thousands more 
        individuals around the world are killed and injured by such mines and 
        remnants each year;
Whereas, over the past 3 decades, the United States has been the global leader 
        in supporting efforts to clear mine-contaminated areas around the world, 
        dedicating more than $4,000,000,000 for demining and related programs 
        since 1993 and helping to eliminate more than 90,000 tons of ordnance in 
        nearly 40 countries;
Whereas, since 1989, the United States Agency for International Development has 
        allocated more than $324,000,000 through the Leahy War Victims Fund in 
        more than 50 countries to provide artificial limbs, wheelchairs, 
        rehabilitation, vocational training, and other assistance to survivors 
        of accidents caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance;
Whereas landmines contaminate countries in which the United States Armed Forces 
        have been engaged in combat or stabilization operations, including Iraq, 
        Syria, Kosovo, and Somalia, posing a significant risk to United States 
        military personnel;
Whereas the United States Government expressed its support for the Maputo +15 
        declaration of June 27, 2014, which established the goal ``to destroy 
        all stockpiled anti-personnel mines and clear all mined areas as soon as 
        possible,'' and ``to the fullest extent possible by 2025'';
Whereas there are 164 States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the 
        Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on 
        their Destruction, done at Oslo September 18, 1997, although the United 
        States is not yet among them;
Whereas the recent use of landmines, cluster bombs, and other munitions, 
        particularly in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, has created 
        new humanitarian priorities and funding requirements for demining, while 
        legacy mine contamination remains an urgent challenge impacting millions 
        of people globally;
Whereas additional resources for demining will be needed to achieve a world free 
        of the threat of landmines and other explosive hazards; and
Whereas, on December 8, 2005, the United Nations General Assembly declared that 
        April 4th of each year shall be observed as the International Day for 
        Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) reaffirms the commitment of the United States to 
        support international humanitarian efforts to eliminate 
        landmines and unexploded ordnance;
            (2) recognizes those individuals in numerous countries who, 
        at great risk to their personal safety, work to locate and 
        remove anti-personnel landmines and unexploded ordnance;
            (3) affirms its support for the goal, as expressed by the 
        Maputo +15 declaration of June 27, 2014, to intensify efforts 
        to clear mined areas to the fullest extent possible by 2025;
            (4) calls upon the United States Government--
                    (A) to continue providing the funding necessary to 
                support international humanitarian demining activities;
                    (B) to maintain its international leadership role 
                in seeking to rid the world of areas contaminated by 
                landmines and unexploded ordnance; and
                    (C) to rededicate itself to addressing legacy mine 
                contamination as an urgent humanitarian priority; and
            (5) reaffirms the goals of the International Day for Mine 
        Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
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