Ottawa Treaty

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State Parties to the Ottawa Treaty}}

The Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, bans completely all anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines). It has been signed/accessioned by 154 states since 1997 while forty states have yet to sign, including China, Russia and the United States.

Contents

1 History
2 Implementation of the treaty

2.1 Destruction of stockpiles

3 Signatories
4 Annual meetings
5 See also
6 External links

History

The first steps for adoption were undertaken in 1992. Written in Oslo, Norway, in September 1997, states from all over the world were invited to initial the convention in Ottawa, Canada, on 3 December and 4 December 1997. Originally opened in Ottawa the treaty was open for signature at the United Nations HQ in New York from December 5, 1997.

The Ottawa Treaty required forty ratifications to come into effect and become international law. On September 16, 1998, Burkina Faso became the 40th State to sign the treaty. The treaty entered into force and became binding among the forty ratifying States on 1 March 1999.

After that date, each additional State becomes bound six months after its instrument is deposited. At that point the State is considered to be a party to the treaty or a "State Party".

147 State Parties have ratified the treaty, seven countries have signed (but not yet ratified) and forty States have not yet signed (China, Cuba, Finland, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Russia, Singapore, USA, to name a few).

Implementation of the treaty

Besides stopping the production and development of Anti-personnel (AP) mines, a party to the treaty must destroy all the AP-mines in its possession within 4 years. Just a small number of mines is allowed to remain for training (mine-clearance, -detection, etc.). Within ten years after signing the treaty, a State Party should have cleared all of its mined areas. This is a difficult task for many states, but at the annual meetings (see below) they may request an extension (and help).

Only Anti-personnel mines are covered. Mixed mines, anti-handling devices and other "static" explosive devices (against persons) are not within the treaty.

Excerpt from the Ottawa treaty:

Article 1

Each State Party undertakes to never under any circumstances:
# use anti-personnel mines;
# develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines;
# assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.
To destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.

Destruction of stockpiles

According to the ICBL report for August 2004; eighty countries declared stockpiles totalling 48 million landmines, of which 37.5 million have been destroyed so far. 65 countries have completed the destruction of their stockpiles, and another 51 countries have declared that they did not possess stockpiles to destroy. Nine countries signed the treaty in the year to August 2004. [link]

Signatories

There were originally 122 signatories in 1997; as of February 2004, it has been signed by 152 countries and ratified by 144.

The biggest countries that have not signed are the People's Republic of China, India the United States and the Russian Federation. The United States refuses to sign the treaty because it does not offer a "Korean exception", as landmines are a crucial component of the U.S. military strategy in South Korea. According to the US government, the one million mines along the DMZ between North and South help maintain the delicate peace by deterring a North Korean attack. Despite conducting research on technologies that could replace the mines in Korea by 2006, in 1999 the U.S. modified the Ottawa Treaty by introducing the M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition which was meant to slow enemy pursuit on retreating armed forces. While still a landmine, the M86 exploits technical loopholes in the Ottawa Treaty; therefore, the future of anti-personnel mines in the U.S. is unclear.

There is a clause in the treaty, Article 3, which permits countries to retain landmines for use in training or development of countermeasures. 64 countries have taken this option. In total 289,000 mines have been declared as retained by various countries under Article 3. A further 23 countries have not declared a figure.

Annual meetings

Annual meetings of the State Parties are held at different locations all around the world. These meetings provide a forum to report on what has been accomplished, indicate where additional work is needed and seek any assistance they may require.

meeting in May 1999 in Maputo (in mine-affected Mozambique)
meeting in September 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland
meeting in September 2001 in Managua (in mine-affected Nicaragua)
meeting in September 2002 in Geneva, Switzerland
meeting in September 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand

The First Review Conference (5 years after the treaty came into force) was held from 29 November – 3 December 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya.

External links

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