The U.S. has promised to cease all production and purchases of anti-personnel landmines, the BBC reported.
The announcement was made Friday at a conference in Maputo, Mozambique, about a United Nations treaty named the Ottowa Convention that bans landmines. The White House, which has pledged to sign the treaty, also said it will not replace current landmine supplies once they expire.
"The United States took the step of declaring it will not produce or otherwise acquire any anti-personnel landmines (APL) in the future, including to replace existing stockpiles as they expire," Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.
The statement did not specify when the Ottowa Convention would be singed, but said steps are being taken to allow the U.S. to sign the treaty. Several other countries, including Russia and China, have not signed the Ottowa Convention.
Human rights groups, though happy with the pledge, criticized the U.S. for not setting a specific date as to when the treaty would be signed, the BBC reported. Critics also said the U.S. should stop using landmines immediately.
"The U.S. should set a target date for joining the Mine Ban Treaty, should commit to no use of the weapons until it accedes, and should begin destruction of all its stockpiles," Steve Goose, arms director of Human Rights Watch, said according to the BBC.
The NSC spokeswoman mentioned the U.S. has given over $2.3 billion in aid to over 90 countries since 1993 for programs to destroy conventional weapons.
Each year scores of people die from exploding landmines, including 3,628 in 2012 and 4,474 the year before, according to Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, which follows the effort to eliminate landmines.
The number of fatalities has continued to decrease since the Ottowa Convention was implemented in 1999, according to the BBC. Nearly 160 states have already signed.
