The Brussels Conference, which was the official follow-up to the 1996 Ottawa Conference, was designed to ensure that those negotiating the treaty were all formally committed to achieving a total ban treaty. For this reason, governments that wanted a seat at the negotiating table at the forth-coming Diplomatic Conference in Oslo were asked to adhere to the ‘Brussels Declaration’. By the end of the Conference, 97 governments had done so, prompting ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga to remark that: ‘The Brussels Conference has demonstrated that the momentum towards a ban of this pernicious weapon is now irreversible.’

In his address to one of the Conference's round-tables, President Sommaruga outlined what the ICRC considered to be the five key elements in the treaty to be concluded: (a) an unambiguous definition of an anti-personnel mine, (b) an absolute prohibition on production, transfer and use, valid from the entry into force of the treaty, (c) the destruction of stockpiles and emplaced mines in the shortest possible time, (d) positive provisions for technical assistance in implementation of the treaty and (e) penal sanctions to punish serious violations of the treaty. He added that the treaty should neither permit reservations nor allow for withdrawal while a party is engaged in armed conflict. It is pleasing to note that all these elements were ultimately included in the Ottawa treaty.