Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday welcomed the UN Human Rights Council’s first-ever resolution on anti-personnel landmines that was passed on April 4.

The Ottawa Convention defines an anti-personnel mine as “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.”

The UN’s resolution states that countries must cooperate to address the effects of anti-personnel mines and cooperate in education efforts about the dangers of mines. The resolution encourages states to make a coordinated effort to address antipersonnel mine survivors’ needs, especially children survivors, under legal frameworks of disability. Under the resolution, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will prepare a report “in consultation with States, international organizations, civil society and other relevant stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive analysis” of the mines.

Governments have recently considered withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention, which was ratified by 165 countries in 1997. The Ottawa Convention states that member countries will “ensure the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines it owns or possesses, or that are under its jurisdiction or control, as soon as possible.”

US government aid cuts have disrupted mine clearance operations around the world. US President Donald Trump has fired, or placed on administrative leave, thousands of deminers, pending reviews.

HRW claims that anti-personnel mines cannot discriminate between a civilian or a soldier, which violates international humanitarian law regulating armed conflicts. HRW said that “civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded landmine casualties in 2023, while children were 37 percent of casualties when the age was recorded [in 2023].”