The world marks the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on 4 April, reaffirming the essential role mine action plays in securing peace, enabling recovery, and driving sustainable development. 

This year’s global theme, “Invest in Peace, Invest in Mine Action,” highlights a fundamental truth: peace cannot be sustained where landmines, cluster munition remnants and other explosive ordnance continue to endanger civilians and obstruct humanitarian and development efforts.

Across the globe, communities still live with the constant fear of explosive hazards. Peace is fragile when families cannot move safely, when essential services remain inaccessible, and when reconstruction is slowed by threats buried beneath the soil. Mine action offers a proven means of addressing these challenges by restoring safety, stability, and confidence.

“Mine Action saves lives and supports vulnerable communities every day. It enables the delivery of vital humanitarian aid, facilitates the safe return home of displaced populations, ensures peacekeepers can work safely, sets the conditions for long-term peace and security, and assists with sustainable economic and social development. Investment in Mine Action is an investment in peace and an investment in the future.” Kazumi Ogawa, UNMAS Director.

“Mine action restores more than land: it restores freedom, opportunity and the foundations for sustainable recovery in conflict-affected communities.” Shoko Noda, UNDP Crisis Bureau Director.

The international community has built a robust framework that has reshaped expectations around civilian protection. 

The Anti‑Personnel Mine Ban Convention set a clear and lasting standard by prohibiting weapons that cause indiscriminate and irreversible harm. The Convention on Cluster Munitions advanced this progress by banning munitions whose unexploded remnants continue to claim lives long after conflict ends. The Political Declaration on Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas renewed global attention to the devastating impact of explosive weapons in urban settings, while the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons has long reinforced humanitarian limits on the use of weapons posing excessive risk to civilians.

Together, these agreements form a powerful ecosystem that prevents new harm, addresses existing contamination, and strengthens global norms that prioritize civilian protection.

Humanitarian mine action saves lives on a daily basis: Clearance operations return land to safe use for homes, agriculture, schools, and markets. Risk education helps communities reduce exposure to danger while contamination persists. Victim assistance ensures that survivors receive the care, inclusion, and support they deserve. Surveys and assessments allow humanitarian and development partners to reach affected populations effectively. These efforts do more than remove explosive devices. They enable mobility, livelihoods, dignity, and long‑term resilience.

Despite rising contamination in many conflict‑affected regions, the impact of sustained mine action is clear. Entire areas once considered unusable have reopened. More than 30 States have declared themselves mine free. Critical infrastructure has been restored. Displaced families have been able to return to their homes. Fields have been planted again, businesses revived, and schools reopened. These are not isolated achievements; they are the cumulative result of decades of cooperation among states, international and national organizations, and affected communities.

But this progress is not guaranteed. Upholding the Anti‑Personnel Mine Ban Convention, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the EWIPA Declaration remains essential to preventing further harm and maintaining civilian protection as a universal norm. Any retreat from these commitments risks reversing hard‑won achievements and placing communities back in danger.

On this international day, we the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Disarmament (GICHD), Fondation Suisse de Déminage (FSD), Handicap International Switzerland, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) call on governments, donors, and partners to reinforce support for mine action and to champion the international agreements that guide it. Investment in mine action is an investment in safer movement, renewed livelihoods, and resilient communities. It is an investment in peace itself.

Mine action works. It has proven its value in every setting where it has been applied. With sustained commitment and principled adherence to the global norms that prohibit indiscriminate weapons, we can continue to reduce civilian harm, support recovery, and help build a future where no one’s life is defined by the presence of explosive remnants of war.

For more information, contact: 

Patrick Nicholson Patrick.nicholson@undp.org