Iraq

Cluster Munition Remnants

Anti-Personnel Mines

  • Article 5 deadline

    1 February 2028

  • Performance

    Average

Performance Criterion Score
Understanding of anti-personnel mine contamination (20% of overall score) 7
National ownership and programme management (10% of overall score) 6
Gender (10% of overall score) 6
Information management and reporting (10% of overall score) 5
Planning and tasking (10% of overall score) 5
Land release system (20% of overall score) 6
Land release outputs and Article 5 compliance (20% of overall score) 7
Performance score 6.2

Key Developments

Iraq reported increased clearance of mined area again in 2022 but overall land release declined as a result of a sharp drop in cancellation of areas affected by improvised mines compared with the previous year. The Directorate for Mine Action (DMA) and the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) prepared a five-year national mine strategy, the first drawn up jointly by the two authorities, which was formally launched in 2023. IKMAA received funding from Slovenia through the ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF) enabling a significant increase in clearance in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The DMA appointed a new director general in February 2023, the 17th in the last 20 years.


Recommendations for Action

  • The Iraqi government should provide the DMA with the legal authority, funding, equipment, and training for staff to strengthen its effectiveness as the national mine action authority.
  • The Iraqi government and mine action authorities should provide clarity on national funding available for mine action and how the funds are allocated.
  • The DMA should seek urgently to strengthen information management in the national programme by enhancing human capacity, modernising data entry processes, updating the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database, and ensuring operators have access to information required for planning.
  • The DMA should provide comprehensive data on the active capacity conducting survey and clearance and data on land release disaggregated by all operators, including state organisations, commercial companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
  • The DMA should streamline issuance of task orders to eliminate cumbersome procedures and lengthy delays obstructing efficient survey and clearance.
  • The Ministry of Environment should engage with the Department of Non-Government Organisations to avoid the restrictions on access that have resulted in lengthy delays to survey and clearance.
  • Iraq should explicitly recognise anti-personnel (AP) mines of an improvised nature as part of its Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) treaty obligation and national mine action authorities in Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) should amend reporting forms to enable disaggregation of improvised mines from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which are not victim activated.

Download the full "Clearing the Mines 2023" report for Iraq

Click here to download the "Clearing the Mines 2023" report for Iraq.