Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/chi/docs/v2_cou_ca_profce
Timestamp: 2020-07-07 06:39:27
Document Index: 590377717

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 13', '§ 19', '§ 48', '§ 8', '§ 511', '§ 523', '§ 8']

The possession or use of anti-personnel mines is prohibited by the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention signed in 1997 by over 100 states. Canada has already ratified the Convention. While many other nations may continue to possess and use anti-personnel land mines, the CF is bound not to do so.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, p. 5-2, § 13.
The manual adds: “The use of an anti-personnel mine that is manually detonated (e.g., by land line or electronic signal from a remote or protected position) by a CF member is not prohibited.” The manual places certain restrictions on the use of “horizontal fragmentation weapons which propel fragments in a horizontal arc of less than 90 degrees”, including that they “may be used for a maximum period of 72 hours if they are located in the immediate proximity to the military unit that emplaced them, and the area is monitored by military personnel to ensure the effective exclusion of civilians”.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, p. 5-2, § 19.
It is prohibited to uses mines … that employ a mechanism or device specifically designed to detonate the munition by the presence of commonly available mine detectors as a result of their magnetic or other non-contact influence during normal use in detection operations.
The manual also states that “self-deactivating mines” are “lawful unless they are used with an anti-handling device that continues to function after the mine has stopped functioning”. It adds, however: “Under Canadian doctrine, anti-handling devices are used only with tank-mines.”
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, p. 5-5, §§ 48 and 49.
Canada’s Code of Conduct (2001) provides:
The use of land mines, other than anti-personnel mines, is lawful, but is subject to strict regulation … The use of all but manually detonated anti-personnel mines (e.g., Claymore mine that is manually detonated) by CF [Canadian Force] members is prohibited.
Canada, Code of Conduct for CF Personnel, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 4 June 2001, Rule 3, §§ 8 and 11.
Canada’s LOAC Manual (2001) states in its chapter entitled “Restrictions on the use of weapons”:
1. The possession or use of anti-personnel land mines is prohibited by the Anti-Personnel Mines Convention signed in 1997 by over 100 states. Canada has already ratified the Convention. While many nations may continue to possess and use anti-personnel land mines, the CF [Canadian Forces] is bound not to do so.
2. An “anti-personnel mine” is a mine designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person and that will incapacitate, injure or kill one or more persons.
3. Any mine that inflicts injury or death when an innocent act is carried out by a non-combatant is included in the above definition of anti-personnel mine.
4. The use of an anti-personnel mine that is manually detonated (for example, by land line or electronic signal from a remote or protected position) by a CF member is not prohibited. Therefore, the use of an explosive device such as a “Claymore Mine” is not prohibited if it is manually detonated. Any anti-personnel mine that is designed to be exploded automatically by the “presence, proximity or contact of a person” cannot be lawfully used by the CF. The “Claymore Area Defence System” is not prohibited if it is command detonated. If horizontal fragmentation weapons which propel fragments in a horizontal arc of less than 90 degrees, such as the Claymore, are placed on or above the ground, they may be used for a maximum period of 72 hours if they are located in the immediate proximity to the military unit that emplaced them, and the area is monitored by military personnel to ensure the effective exclusion of civilians.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 511.1–4.
7. It is prohibited to use mines, booby traps or other devices that employ a mechanism or device specifically designed to detonate the munition by the presence of commonly available mine detectors as a result of their magnetic or other non-contact influence during normal use in detection operations.
8. A “self-deactivating mine” permanently stops functioning when a component (for example, battery) is exhausted. Self-deactivating mines are lawful unless they are used with an anti-handling device that continues to function after the mine has stopped functioning.
9. An “anti-handling device” is part of, linked to or under a mine and detonates when an attempt is made to tamper with the mine. An example of an anti-handling device is a hand grenade with its safety pin removed that is placed under a mine such that the grenade explodes when the mine is moved. Under Canadian doctrine, anti-handling devices are used only with anti-tank mines.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 523.7–9.
8. The use of land mines, other than anti-personnel mines, is lawful, but is subject to strict regulation.
11. The use of all but manually detonated anti-personnel mines (e.g., Claymore mine that is manually detonated) by CF [Canadian Forces] members is prohibited.
Canada, Code of Conduct for CF Personnel, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 2005, Rule 3, §§ 8 and 11.
Canada’s Anti-Personnel Mines Act (1997) provides:
(a) place an anti-personnel mine under, on or near the ground or other surface area with the intent to cause the explosion of the anti-personnel mine by the presence, proximity or contact of a person; or
(b) develop, produce or otherwise acquire, possess or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, an anti-personnel mine, or stockpile anti-personnel mines.
(2) Except as authorized under the Export and Import Permits Act, no person shall export or import an anti-personnel mine.
Canada, Anti-Personnel Mines Act, 1997, Article 6.
In 1995, during a debate in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Canada stated that it continued “to advocate the elimination of land-mines, recognizing that this goal will take a considerable time to achieve”.
Canada, Statement before the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, UN Doc. A/C.1/ 50/PV.8, 20 October 1995, p. 6.
On 17 January 1996, during the Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Canadian officials announced an immediate moratorium on the production, transfer and operational use of anti-personnel landmines.
Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World, available at http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=1999&pqs_type=lm&pqs_report=canada&pqs_section=; Government of Canada, News Release No. 5 on the announcement of a comprehensive, unilateral moratorium on the production, export and operational use of anti-personnel mines by Canada, 17 January 1996.
On 2 October 1996, it was announced that the destruction of two-thirds of Canadian stockpiles of anti-personnel landmines would begin immediately, with the remainder of stocks to be destroyed in the context of an international ban. The “Ottawa Process” was launched on 5 October 1996 when, during the closing plenary of the International Strategy Conference “Towards a Global Ban on Antipersonnel Mines”, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, invited other governments to return to Ottawa in December 1997 to sign a treaty banning anti-personnel mines.
Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World, available at http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=1999&pqs_type=lm&pqs_report=canada&pqs_section=; for a detailed description of Canada’s role in the “Ottawa Process”, see M. Cameron et al. (eds), To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines, Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1998.
An intensive 14-month period of demarches, bilateral and multilateral meetings, and negotiations with governments and NGOs followed the announcement. In addition to offering support for various initiatives, Canadian officials provided logistical support and used several means to build broad public and political support for the mine ban.
Frequently, Canadian officials helped to draft the text and worked to build support for various United Nations, regional and “Ottawa Process” resolutions centred on anti-personnel landmines. These included the UN General Assembly resolution in 1996 calling for an international agreement to ban anti-personnel landmines, the UN General Assembly resolution in 1997 calling on all Member States to sign the mine ban treaty, the Final Declaration of the Brussels Conference on Anti-personnel Landmines in June 1997 committing States to the December treaty signing, and the 1996 OAS resolution calling for a hemispheric mine-free zone. In other fora, such as the G-8 and the Commonwealth, Canadian officials worked continuously to place the mine ban issue on these and other agendas.
In 1997, the Canadian Department for National Defence authorized the formation of its Antipersonnel Landmine Working Group. Policy Guidelines published in the department’s Personnel Newsletter in June 1997 outlined activities prohibited to Canadian Forces personnel such as stockpiling, acquisition and use of anti-personnel landmines.
Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World, available at http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=1999&pqs_type=lm&pqs_report=canada&pqs_section=.
At the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 1999, Canada (together with the Canadian Red Cross and Norway) stated that it would “continue support for the universalization and full implementation of the Ottawa Convention”.
Canada (together with Norway), Statement at the 27th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, 31 October–6 November 1999.
At the Second Meeting of the States Parties to the Ottawa Convention in 2000, Canada stated that it was
deeply concerned by reports that Angola, a treaty signatory, continues to deploy new mines – increasing the scale of human tragedy for peoples who have already suffered after years of civil war. We are also concerned about allegations of new mine use by Burundi and Sudan, also treaty signatories. We urge these states to clarify these matters quickly and in a manner consistent with the political and moral obligations they undertook when they signed this Convention. There are also allegations that parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have deployed mines. The fact the some of the states with forces engaged in the [Democratic Republic of the Congo] are States Parties to this Convention underscores the need for these states to clarify the facts surrounding these allegations.
Canada further noted:
Beyond the immediate community bound by this Convention, mines are still being used by governments and non-state actors to an extent that merits our collective condemnation. It is important to highlight the indiscriminate use of landmines by both Russian and Chechen forces in Chechnya – surely one of the most serious setbacks for the already minimal norms regarding mine use contained within the Landmines Protocol of the Convention on Certain Conventional weapons … We call upon all states, signatory and non-signatory alike, to work co-operatively to clarify compliance issues in a manner that will build greater respect for the norms we have worked so long and hard to create.
Canada, Statement at the Second Meeting of the States Parties to the Ottawa Convention, Geneva, 11–15 September 2000.
In 2013, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development issued a press release entitled “Harper Government observes the International Day for Mine Awareness”, which stated:
Today, on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, highlighted a few of the ways that Canada is helping to eradicate the use of landmines.
Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, “Harper Government observes the International Day for Mine Awareness”, Press Release, 4 April 2013.