International Ban on Landmines

In the current essay we will review the International Ban on Landmines. It is essential to note that the international movement to ban anti-personnel mines ”“ is the union of public organizations advocating for a ban on the production and use of antipersonnel mines. The ban is essential nowadays due to the current circumstances and tendencies in the world.
“The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a global network in over 90 countries that works for a world free of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions, where landmine and cluster munition survivors can lead fulfilling lives”, as described in The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).
The movement was founded in 1992 by combining the common interests of the Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Disabled Peoples’ International (English Handicap International), Foundation for American veterans of the Vietnam War and other organizations. To date, the movement includes more than 1400 groups operating in more than 90 countries worldwide. The organizational structure of the movement includes a steering committee composed of four members of an advisory council (21 persons) and five representatives.
Antipersonnel mines ”“ are the mines designed to accommodate under or on the ground and exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of a person. Cluster munitions ”“ are the bombs, which open in the air to release a large amount of explosive submunitions, or bomblets, by a very large area – up to several football fields. Bomblets that do not explode on impact, “behave” like mine and can explode on contact with the man.
Millions of mines and explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions, lie in the fields and beside roads in more than one hundred countries and regions. Do they lie under or on the ground, both kinds of weapons do not distinguish between soldier and civilian. Killing or maiming indiscriminately for decades after a conflict, they are weapons of mass destruction in slow motion. Mines and cluster bombs kill or cause such serious injuries as blindness, burns, fracture of limbs and shrapnel wounds that often requires lifelong care. Number of survivors of accidents with landmines and explosive remnants of war are estimated at 500,000 people worldwide and this number increases each year.
Mines and explosive remnants of war constitute a lethal barrier to development, making it impossible to use land communities by blocking the post-conflict and exposing the danger to refugees returning to their homes. Mine clearance of land for its return to safe and productive use is extremely expensive, dangerous and time-consuming work.
In 1997, the efforts of the motion were signed by the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel mines, which came into force in 1999. At the moment the treaty was ratified by 156 countries. Among the non-signatories were China, U.S. and Russia. The movement gained support from prominent and influential people, and the prominent supporter of the organization at one time was Princess Diana. In 1997, the International Movement to Ban Landmines and its founder-coordinator Jody Williams were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It should be noted that the coalition was formed in 1992 when six organizations (Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Handicap International, Physicians for Human Rights, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and the Mines Advisory Group), decided to work together to ban mines. Since that time the campaign has become gathering some 1,400 organizations, including working groups for women, children and war veterans, religious groups, in favor of human rights, working locally, nationally and internationally the abolition of landmines, as described in The International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
From the first moment Jody Williams became the visible leader and spokesperson for the campaign, taking the Princess Diana of Wales as one of the characters that were more relevant to the campaign world. In 1997 the organization, the United Nations agencies, the governments involved, and the affected communities and civil society got their first goal: signing the Ottawa Treaty banning the use of mines. Despite the success of the treaty, signed by 156 countries, some nations as important as the United States, the People’s Republic of China or Russia, as of 2010, have not yet signed.
The same year, the ICBL, along with Jody Williams, the coordinator of the time, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The International Campaign to Ban Land Mines to German International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a network of over 1,200 NGOs in 90 countries. Founded in 1995, the German Initiative to Ban Landmines (German Initiative to Ban Land Mines, GIBL) is part of the ICBL. The campaign has the goal of the global ban on landmines. In the course of 1991 began a few non-governmental organizations and individuals to simultaneously coordinate a discussion on the need for the initiatives to ban anti-personnel mines. In October 1992, the ICBL was officially founded by a group of Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, as described in United States Campaign Landmines.
The ICBL saw from the beginning to pursue as a flexible network of organizations that share the same goals. The campaign follows an international ban on use, production, storage and sale of anti-personnel mines, as well as an increased international commitment to humanitarian mine clearance and assistance to mine victims.
Since 1992, the preparations were for an international treaty that would outlaw land mines. In September 1997, the text of the Mine Ban Treaty was written and signed in December in Ottawa, Canada by several states. In her death year, Lady Di dedicated much of this concern. For these efforts was the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams, coordinator of your 1997, shortly after her death, the Nobel Peace Prize. With the signing and ratification of the contract work by Burkina Faso became the 40th Country, the Ottawa Convention was binding on all members.
The ICBL works for the implementation and universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on cluster munitions. This mission includes advocacy essentially universal treaties, the clearance of mined areas, destroying stockpiles of landmines and weapons munitions and assistance to survivors of these weapons, their families and their communities. Through the research of the Landmine Monitor Arms and munitions, his participation in the treaty mechanisms, lobbying governments, mobilizing the public and disseminating information to the media, the ICBL monitors and promotes the application of treaties, and is able to assess efforts by the international community to solve the problem of mines and cluster submunition.
For example, since the mid 1990’s, Norway attaches great importance to efforts aimed at reducing the human suffering associated with the use of land and land mines. Norway played a leading role in developing the UN Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Convention banning anti-personnel mines). The text of the Convention were finalized in Oslo in September, 1997.