Edition 2.1 - March 2020 DOWNLOAD
Introduction
Marking of hazards is a vital component of Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) and ensures that on-site personnel, visitors, and community members are alerted to potentially hazardous areas. To reduce risk to the population and to persons working in HMA, the Lebanon Mine Action Center (LMAC) and Implementing Agencies (IAs) shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that Suspected Hazard Areas (SHAs) and Confirmed Hazard Areas (CHAs) are clearly marked in a way that should unambiguously differentiate between safe and hazardous areas. In general, hazardous area marking is placed by the team that is conducting survey or clearance operations. Whenever practicable, physical barriers should be used to reduce the risk of unintentional entry to hazardous areas. This NMAS provides standards on the requirements of the marking used to demarcate EO hazardous areas. In addition to being a national requirement, marking hazardous areas helps Lebanon comply with its obligations under: the “Convention on Cluster Munitions” (CCM) Article 4.2; the “Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects” (CCW) Article 5; and the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, which is often abbreviated to the ‘Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty’ or the ‘Ottawa Convention’. This NMAs is designed to ensure that all that is practicable is done to meet these obligations.