Swaziland
Practice Relating to the Prohibition of Certain Types of Landmines
Swaziland voted in support of the UN General Assembly resolution in support of a ban on anti-personnel landmines in 1996. At the Fourth International NGO Conference on Landmines held in Maputo, Mozambique, in February 1997, Swaziland’s high commissioner to Mozambique, J.M. Dube, called for a ban on anti-personnel landmines “with immediate effect”.
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=swaziland&pqs_section=; J.M. Dube, “Swaziland’s Policy Position on Anti-personnel Landmines”, Statement to the Fourth International NGO Conference on Landmines in Maputo, Mozambique, 27 February 1997.
During the OAU meeting on landmines in Kempton Park, South Africa, in May 1997, the principal secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Timothy L. Dlamini, stated that the government “is convinced that the use, development, production and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines should be banned with immediate effect”.
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=swaziland&pqs_section=; T. Dlamini, “Swaziland Government’s Position”, Statement to the OAU Conference, Kempton Park, South Africa, 19-21 May 1997.
Swaziland supported the resolution on landmines adopted by the OAU in June 1997, which was based on the Kempton Park Plan of Action. Later that month, Swaziland endorsed the Final Declaration of the Brussels Conference on Anti-personnel Landmines, affirmed Swaziland’s support for “the total ban on manufacture, use, transfer and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines” and announced its intent to sign the mine ban treaty in December 1997.
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=swaziland&pqs_section=; “Declaration by the Kingdom of Swaziland”, Brussels Conference on Anti-personnel Landmines, 24–27 June 1997.
Swaziland attended as a full participant the Oslo negotiations in September 1997 which led to the adoption of a treaty banning anti-personnel landmines and spoke against proposals to weaken the treaty text.
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=swaziland&pqs_section=.
