An indefensible defence of landmines: a response to James Cowan of the HALO Trust and his plea not to “condemn the US decision to give anti-personnel mines to Ukraine”

James Cowan, CEO of The HALO Trust, undermines decades of humanitarian progress by endorsing landmines as a military necessity for Ukraine in the Evening Standard, risking the erosion of global consensus embodied in the Ottawa Convention and contradicting the core humanitarian principles his organisation represents.