14+China

**Country** : China
 * Topic**:Landmines
 * Committee**: 14
 * Name**: Stand W.
 * Period**: 0

__I. A BRIEF BACKGROUND OF LANDMINES__ Landmines are and have been been a problem in many 3rd world countries and even some of the wealthiest leading countries of the world. They were invented in the 1500's as simple bombs that soldiers could detonate when the enemy was too close, but nowadays landmine technology has advanced much since then and they now pose a threat to countries around the world. In times of war a country will use landmines as a weapon and that's not necessarily a problem. The problem is that the landmines are not cleaned up after the wars end, and the fact that more landmines are sent out than documented. This means that there are landmines that the government doesn't even keep tabs on. These unchecked mines are usually stumbled upon by an innocent citizen which in most cases leads to severe injury and even death. Statistics show that the number of citizen deaths by landmines a year has gone up 90% since 2003. The number of deaths a year is now a mind boggling 150,000. About 70% of these victims are children. Some countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Thailand are majorly affected by this problem.

__II. UNITED NATIONS INVOLVEMENT__ The UN has taken action about this problem at times in the past such as [|The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer or Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction] which is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. It is usually referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Mine Ban Treaty. This convention states that all countries who have agreed are banned from Making, Keeping, Selling or Transferring landmines. They also agreed to destroy all landmines under their jurisdiction. The only exception is that mines can be produced to use for mine detection training and the likes.

__III. COUNTRY POLICY AND INVOLVEMENT__ While China isn't completely against landmines landmines they aren't completely for them either. We believe that landmines are fine to use in times of war and combat, but they need to be dealt with afterward by the responsible party(ies). China has recently taken steps in clearing out the landmines that they helped produce. They have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to rid their country and neighboring countries of landmines. China has revoked its old ways and has joined the effort in stopping the landmine threat.

__IV. SOLUTIONS__ China would like to see further progress in the elimination of landmines from highly mined countries. With the aid of the UN and other NGO's we at the People's Republic of China to the UN believe that we can rid the problem of landmines nearly entirely.