The Banning of Anti-Personnel Landmines: The Legal Contribution of the International Committee of the Red Cross 1955-1999

The International Committee of the Red Cross has played a key role in the effort to ban anti-personnel landmines and in offering aid to victims of war and internal armed violence. This book provides an overview of the work of the ICRC in this area from 1955 through 1999, and gives additional commentary on general issues of the methods and means of warfare. It contains International Committee of the Red Cross position papers, working papers, and speeches made by its representatives to the international meetings convened to address the mines issue, including the 1995-96 Review Conference of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and the diplomatic meeting which adopted the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel mines. These documents provide critical insights into the development of international humanitarian law on this issue, and will form a basis for discussions on landmines and other conventional weapons.

Introduction; 1. From principles to rules: regulating mines up to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons; 2. The Review Conference of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: an initial response to the landmine crisis; 3. The Ottawa process: from regional initiatives to an international prohibition of anti-personnel mines.