Ben Keith writes for Newsweek | Landmine Victims Deserve More Than Sympathy. It's Time for a UN Fund To Support Them | Opinion

Ben Keith writes for Newsweek on 4 April 2025

The article was first published in Newsweek on 4 April 2025.

On today's International Day for Mine Awareness, we must acknowledge three uncomfortable truths—first, that owing to conflict in Ukraine and elsewhere, landmine deaths and casualties are resurging around the world. Second, globally, political consensus for banning landmines is waning. And third, while critical global de-mining efforts continue, international support for those already harmed by landmines remains woefully inadequate.

After all, the consequences of war don't end when the shooting stops. For landmine victims, the damage is permanent, personal, and often invisible to the rest of the world. Landmines remain hidden in soil long after peace treaties are signed. They maim civilians—and children disproportionately—poison water supplies, stop communities from farming, and delay recovery by decades. These weapons turn the post-war landscape into horror.

What has been consistently overlooked is the lived experience of survivors. In many cases, those injured or displaced by landmines receive no long-term medical care, no psychological support, and no compensation for their losses. Meanwhile, the companies that manufacture these weapons, and the governments that use them, are rarely held accountable.

This is why this week at the 58th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva the Campaign for Landmine Justice was launched. It's aim—to secure UNHRC recognition for the right of landmine victims for compensation—both from the companies that produce landmines and the governments that lay them. As a first step, the Campaign is calling on the world to establish a United Nations Fund for Victims of Landmines.

The need is growing more urgent every day. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the use of landmines has surged. At the same time, military planners in Asia are increasingly considering anti-personnel mines in response to tensions with China. Even the United States has walked back restrictions on their use.

The taboo against landmines and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty are being eroded. Just this week, Finland announced it would be quitting the convention. It joins a growing number of European countries, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania who have said they will leave the treaty in the face of an increasingly revanchist Russia.

As the world rearms, the risk of landmines becoming normalized again is real. To push back, we need more than lip service; we need more even than legal prohibitions. We need real consequences, including reparations for the people who suffer long after the fighting ends.

The proposed fund would be a practical, rights-based mechanism to fill this gap. Modelled on existing U.N. funds, such as for victims of torture, it would support direct compensation for survivors. It would also reinforce a critical principle—those who cause harm should help pay for the damage.

The fund's resources would come from two main sources—the governments that deploy landmines and the companies that manufacture or profit from them. This is a humanitarian application of the "polluter pays" principle. It also offers a new model of accountability, one that connects post-conflict recovery to responsibility for harm.

At the Campaign's launch at the U.N., it was emphasized that the impact of landmines is not just humanitarian—it is a human rights and environmental emergency. Many of the communities affected are already marginalized, and minefields worsen food insecurity, block access to clean water, and destroy economic opportunities. We are seeing this play out now, not only in Ukraine, but all over the world.

It is time for a new international approach that recognizes landmine survivors as rights-holders, not just as victims in need of charity. A U.N. trust fund would be a modest but meaningful step toward that goal. It would send a signal to states and arms producers that the world is watching and that there is a cost for laying hidden weapons in the Earth.

On this International Day for Mine Awareness, words are not enough. The international community must move from awareness to action. It must create the systems that survivors need and the accountability that future generations deserve.

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Picture: via Unsplash @Tomas Eidsvold

Ben Keith is a leading specialist lawyer in international law and human rights. He sits on the advisory board of the Campaign for Landmine Justice. He is co-founder of International Human Rights Advisors.