Efforts to Unite Against Land Mines

In December 1997, representatives from a number of countries signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa treaty. “This is an achievement without precedent or parallel in either international disarmament or international humanitarian law,” says Jean Chrétien, prime minister of Canada.b Still, nearly 60 countries—including some of the world’s greatest land-mine manufacturers—have not yet signed the treaty.

Will the Ottawa treaty succeed in eliminating the scourge of land mines? Perhaps to some extent. But many are skeptical. “Even if all the countries of the world would adhere to the proceedings of Ottawa,” points out Claude Simonnot, a codirector of Handicap International, in France, “that would be only one step in the direction of freeing the planet from all danger of mines.” Why? “Millions of mines remain buried in the soil, patiently waiting for future victims,” Simonnot says.