What is Landmine Free South Caucasus?
Landmine Free South Caucasus is a regional campaign dedicated to raising awareness of the problem of landmines and explosive remnants of war in the South Caucasus, encouraging regional collaboration in eliminating the problem from the region. The campaign takes place simultaneously in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan and in five languages: English, Russian, Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani. The campaign first took place in 2019, and this year, we, together with local partners and with support from international organisations, including the EU, we are organising the third regional campaign, Landmine Free South Caucasus, which this year focuses on the topic of the consequences of landmines and explosive remnants of war across the region.
Why is the campaign so important?
This campaign is important because the South Caucasus remains one of the regions most contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war in the world. Every year around the world, thousands of people are killed or injured because of landmines and explosive remnants of war, and the South Caucasus is no different. But this problem has other very negative consequences, not only for victims but entire families and communities. So we want to raise awareness of the problem and encourage regional cooperation in demining the South Caucasus as a small but important step towards lasting peace in the region.
What is going to happen in this year’s campaign and in 2023?
The Landmine Free South Caucasus campaign will start on 30 November with a “day of solidarity with victims of landmines and explosive remnants of war in the South Caucasus and their communities”, with things happening simultaneously in Tbilisi, Yerevan, and Baku. In Tbilisi, the 30 November day of solidarity will be marked with a commemorative event, including invited guests, and special moments from the event will be published online afterwards. We will then continue our campaign in spring 2023, with a week of events happening across the South Caucasus, again with a focus on the victims and consequences of landmines and explosive remnants of war in the South Caucasus.
How can we keep up to date with what is happening during the campaign?
Following our event on 30 November, you can follow the LFSC campaign pages on Facebook and Instagram, as well as the commonspace.eu news portal on Twitter, where we will be posting updates, information, stats and facts about the problem of landmines and explosive remnants of war in the South Caucasus, and photographs about the activities and events occurring during the campaign. It is important that as many people as possible across the whole South Caucasus know about this problem, that as many people hear about and share knowledge of this problem, so that everyone, from local populations to international partners, can work together for a landmine free South Caucasus.
