About Us
Established in 1997, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) works to eliminate the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices by coordinating United Nations mine action, leading operational responses at the country level, and in support of peace operations, as well as through the development of standards, policies and norms.
As a specialized service of the United Nations located within the Department of Peace Operations, UNMAS operates under UN legislative mandates of both the General Assembly and the Security Council. UNMAS also responds to requests for assistance from United Nations Resident Coordinators and national authorities in states affected by explosive ordnance.
Our Mandate
UNMAS coordinates the mine action work of the United Nations system as Chair of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action (IACG-MA) and its subsidiary groups, a responsibility confirmed by the General Assembly (A/RES/80/74 (2025) OP.20) and confirmed by the Security Council in SCR 2365 (2017). UNMAS is also the ‘provider of last resort’ for mine action within the Protection Cluster, the Chair of the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) Review Board and its Steering Committee and leads the United Nations Coordinating Task Force on a Whole-of-System Approach to IEDs, consistent with the Disarmament Agenda of the Secretary-General.
UNMAS supports the entire UN system through a small team at headquarters, a humanitarian hub in Geneva, and some 3,000 women and men employed through UNMAS funding in the field. UNMAS is a specialized, agile organization, which delivers concrete results in dynamic operating environments across the world. UNMAS approach is needs-driven and people-centred, guided by humanitarian principles.
Our Mission
A surge in conflict across the globe has led to increasingly complex demands on the mine action sector. The UNMAS approach is needs-driven and people-centred, guided by humanitarian principles. UNMAS supports the entire UN system through a small team at headquarters, a humanitarian hub in Geneva, and some 3,000 women and men employed through UNMAS funding in the field. UNMAS is a specialized, agile organization, which delivers concrete results in dynamic operating environments across the world.
Leading, coordinating and implementing, through partnerships with States, regional bodies and civil society, UNMAS ensures an effective and efficient mine action response under the most challenging of circumstances.
History of Mine Action
The global movement to ban anti-personnel mines is a pearl. The first words of the United Nations Charter are “We the people of the United Nations…” and they are the key to how the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention came into being. Anti-personnel mines were banned because individuals were so disgusted by the images of innocent people, men, women and thousands of children, maimed by this weapon that they shouted out, demanding action be taken. They were joined by other individuals, and quickly a movement was born. At that time, it was said that it would take 1000 years to eradicate landmines. That was 30 years ago; today, hundreds of nations have signed up to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, and hundreds of millions of mines have been destroyed, or their fabrication halted. The clearance of known anti-personnel minefields could be completed within a decade.
Working together, or, multilateral cooperation, is what made this possible.
The United Nations cannot act alone; it needs the support of “We the people…” to succeed. The progress seen through the movement to ban landmines and then cluster munitions- with grassroots activism sparking the adoption of new multilateral mechanisms - must be learned from and replicated in combatting new global challenges. Let it inspire us all.
Read the history of mine action here