United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)
The focal point for UN mine action
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) collaborates with 13 other UN departments, agencies, programmes and funds to ensure an effective, proactive and coordinated response to the problems of landmines and explosive remnants of war.
The UN General Assembly created UNMAS in 1997 to serve as the UN focal point for mine action and to support the UN's vision of "a world free of the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance, where individuals and communities live in a safe environment conducive to development, and where mine survivors are fully integrated into their societies."
Coordination
UNMAS chairs the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action, which brings together working-level representatives of the UN organizations involved in mine action to develop or revise policies and strategies, set priorities among UN players, and share information. UNMAS also coordinates meetings of standing committees, which were created when the Anti-Personnel Mine-Ban Treaty went into effect in 1999, and the Steering Committee on Mine Action, which brings together UN mine-action, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Programme management and project implementation
UNMAS sets up and manages mine-action coordination centres in countries and territories as part of peacekeeping operations and humanitarian emergencies or crises. In these situations, UNMAS may plan and carry out mine-action projects, orchestrate the work of local and international mine-action service providers, and set priorities for mine clearance, mine-risk education and other aspects of mine action, and
Mine-action coordination centres managed by UNMAS are also responsible for public information and community liaison operations, victim assistance initiatives; collection of landmine and casualty data, provision of technical advice on destruction of landmine stockpiles, quality management for mine-action operations, and destruction and removal of explosive remnants of war, which comprise unexploded ordnance (bombs, mortars and other explosives that do not detonate on impact but remain volatile and dangerous) and abandoned explosive ordnance, which are unused explosives left behind by armed forces.
UNMAS oversees and manages mine-action programmes in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ethiopia/Eritrea Temporary Security Zone, southern Lebanon, and Sudan.
Advocacy and information
UNMAS coordinates overall UN advocacy in support of treaties and other international legal instruments related to landmines and explosive remnants of war and in support of the rights of people affected by these devices.
Resource mobilisation and management
UNMAS administers the Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action, established in 1994 by the UN Secretary-General. The fund primarily pays for coordination and operation of UNMAS-managed programs, and missions to assess the scope of countries' problems of landmines and explosive remnants of war. Since its inception, the Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action has received contributions in the total amount of US$394,769,354 from donor governments, the European Commission, non-governmental organizations, schools and other contributors.
Last updated : January 2008