Mandate For Change:
The following is an extract from the Secretary-General's report on Mine Action to the General Assembly of the United Nations

In July 1996 at an international conference in Denmark, international standards for humanitarian mine clearance programmes were proposed by working groups. In doing so, criteria were prescribed for all aspects of mine clearance, standards were recommended, and a new, universal definition of "clearance" was agreed to.

A UN-led working group subsequently revised and developed these principles, resulting in what is now known as International Standards for Humanitarian Mine Clearance Operations. The first version of these standards was released by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in March 1997.

"In promoting these guidelines, it was recognized that it would be necessary to review the standards periodically to reflect developing mine action practices and procedures. To this end, UNMAS is currently conducting a review of the existing standards to ensure that they accurately reflect recent developments in mine clearance technology, practices, and procedures."
New York, October 1999

UNMAS invited the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to coordinate the review and revision of mine clearance standards. This web site has been established to disseminate information on the review, and to encourage the widest possible involvement of the User Community.

Even though 22 Standards were endorsed by the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations on 26 September 2001, both these standards and those currently under draft, will continue to be reviewed and revised.

To assist the review and revision process, and to ensure that the standards continually meet the requirements of the mine action community, comments and suggestions should be sent to Chief UNMAS (mineaction@un.org) with a copy sent to the Project Officer at GICHD (imas@gichd.ch).