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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2010
After two years of tortuous negotiations and despite support for a total ban on anti-personnel mines by nearly half of the 51 States participating in the final session of the Review Conference of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), held in Geneva from 22 April to 3 May 1996, only minimal restrictions on the use of antipersonnel landmines were finally adopted. Nine years after entry into force of amended Protocol II, anti-personnel mines will have to be detectable and those scattered outside of marked minefields, by air, artillery or other means, will have to self-destruct after 30 days. However, long-lived mines will remain available for production, export and use — including indiscriminate use. Regrettably, this modest legal response to a major international humanitarian crisis, though adopted by consensus, is unlikely to significantly reduce the horrendous level of mine casualties.
1 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, adopted on 10 October 1980; 59 States party (as at 30 April 1996).
2 Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996). See text below.
3 See the ICRC's reports in IRRC, No. 307, July-August 1995, pp. 363-367 (on its position on the issues discussed), and No. 309, November-December 1995, pp. 672-677 (on the first session of the Review Conference).
4 Resolution 10 — Anti-personnel landmines — adopted by the Council of Delegates, December 1995, in: IRRC, No. 310, January-February 1996, p. 151.
5 Resolution 2, part G — on anti-personnel landmines — of the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva 3-7 December 1995, in: IRRC, No. 310, January-February 1996, pp. 66–67.
6 See note 2.
7 Adopted on 10 October 1980.
8 Protocol II, Article 2, para. 3.
9 I.e. the definition as contained in new Article 2(3) but without the word “primarily”.
10 Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV), adopted on 13 October 1995. See the comprehensive study by Doswald-Beck, L., “New Protocol on Blinding Weapons”, in this issue, pp. 272–298.Google Scholar
11 “Anti-personnel mines will be banned”, May 1996 (to be published shortly in several journals).
