Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Cornelio Sommaruga, President, International Committee of the Red Cross
- Foreword by Ambassador Jacob S. Selebi, South Africa
- Foreword by Ambassador Johan Molander, Sweden
- Introduction
- PART 1 FROM PRINCIPLES TO RULES: REGULATING MINES UP TO THE 1980 CONVENTION ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS
- PART 2 THE REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE 1980 CONVENTION ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS: AN INITIAL RESPONSE TO THE LANDMINE CRISIS
- 1 Introduction
- 2 ICRC Symposium on Anti-Personnel Mines (Montreux Symposium),Montreux, Switzerland, 21–23 April 1993
- 3 Mines: A Perverse Use of Technology, May 1993
- 4 The call of the ICRC for a global ban on anti-personnel mines, Geneva, Switzerland, 24 February 1994
- 5 Meetings of governmental experts to prepare the Review Conference, 1994–1995
- 6 ICRC Position Paper No. 1 – February 1995, Landmines and Blinding Weapons: From Expert Group to the Review Conference
- 7 United Nations General Assembly, 1994
- 8 Regional meetings in Africa, 1995
- 9 United Nations International Meeting on Mine Clearance, Geneva, Switzerland, 6 July 1995
- 10 First Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, Vienna, Austria, 26 September–13 October 1995
- 11 ICRC Position Paper No. 2 – Landmine Negotiations: Impasse in Vienna Highlights Urgency of National and Regional Measures, November 1995
- 12 United Nations General Assembly, 1995
- 13 Launching of the International Media Campaign against Antipersonnel Landmines by the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland, 22 November 1995
- 14 The 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 1995
- 15 Second Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, January 1996
- 16 Anti-personnel Landmines: Friend or Foe? A Study of the Military Use and Effectiveness of Anti-personnel Mines, commissioned by the ICRC, March 1996
- 17 Third Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, April–May 1996
- 18 ICRC Position Paper No. 3 – July 1996, Stopping the Landmines Epidemic: From Negotiation to Action
- 19 Making Central America a Mine-free Zone. ICRC Seminar in Managua,Nicaragua, 28–29 May 1996
- PART 3 THE OTTAWA PROCESS FROM REGIONAL INITIATIVES TO AN INTERNATIONAL PROHIBITION OF ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES
- Index
9 - United Nations International Meeting on Mine Clearance, Geneva, Switzerland, 6 July 1995
from PART 2 - THE REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE 1980 CONVENTION ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS: AN INITIAL RESPONSE TO THE LANDMINE CRISIS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Cornelio Sommaruga, President, International Committee of the Red Cross
- Foreword by Ambassador Jacob S. Selebi, South Africa
- Foreword by Ambassador Johan Molander, Sweden
- Introduction
- PART 1 FROM PRINCIPLES TO RULES: REGULATING MINES UP TO THE 1980 CONVENTION ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS
- PART 2 THE REVIEW CONFERENCE OF THE 1980 CONVENTION ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS: AN INITIAL RESPONSE TO THE LANDMINE CRISIS
- 1 Introduction
- 2 ICRC Symposium on Anti-Personnel Mines (Montreux Symposium),Montreux, Switzerland, 21–23 April 1993
- 3 Mines: A Perverse Use of Technology, May 1993
- 4 The call of the ICRC for a global ban on anti-personnel mines, Geneva, Switzerland, 24 February 1994
- 5 Meetings of governmental experts to prepare the Review Conference, 1994–1995
- 6 ICRC Position Paper No. 1 – February 1995, Landmines and Blinding Weapons: From Expert Group to the Review Conference
- 7 United Nations General Assembly, 1994
- 8 Regional meetings in Africa, 1995
- 9 United Nations International Meeting on Mine Clearance, Geneva, Switzerland, 6 July 1995
- 10 First Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, Vienna, Austria, 26 September–13 October 1995
- 11 ICRC Position Paper No. 2 – Landmine Negotiations: Impasse in Vienna Highlights Urgency of National and Regional Measures, November 1995
- 12 United Nations General Assembly, 1995
- 13 Launching of the International Media Campaign against Antipersonnel Landmines by the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland, 22 November 1995
- 14 The 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 1995
- 15 Second Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, January 1996
- 16 Anti-personnel Landmines: Friend or Foe? A Study of the Military Use and Effectiveness of Anti-personnel Mines, commissioned by the ICRC, March 1996
- 17 Third Session of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the 1980 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, April–May 1996
- 18 ICRC Position Paper No. 3 – July 1996, Stopping the Landmines Epidemic: From Negotiation to Action
- 19 Making Central America a Mine-free Zone. ICRC Seminar in Managua,Nicaragua, 28–29 May 1996
- PART 3 THE OTTAWA PROCESS FROM REGIONAL INITIATIVES TO AN INTERNATIONAL PROHIBITION OF ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES
- Index
Summary
Seeking to raise additional funds for badly needed mine clearance operations, the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs convened a meeting of some 100 States to stimulate both funding and an international exchange of technical expertise. In his statement to the meeting, ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga told assembled delegates that during 1992 a quarter of those treated by the ICRC had been mine casualties, most of them non-combatants. He termed the ‘mindless carnage’ that mines had wrought on populations around the world an ‘affront to humanitarian values’ and he reiterated his call for a total ban on these weapon.
Statement of Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Geneva 6 July 1995
Over the past ten years medical teams of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have treated more than 140 thousand war-wounded. One in five was a mine victim. Each and every year more than twenty thousand men, women and children are injured or killed by anti-personnel mines.
The use of these pernicious weapons has resulted in an acute human tragedy. Apart from the appalling number of casualties they cause, anti-personnel mines inflict the most horrific wounds regularly treated by war surgeons, strike blindly at all human beings alike and continue to spread terror for decades after hostilities have ended.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been charged by the international community with providing protection and assistance to the victims of armed conflict. Not only have landmines created victims on a massive scale but these weapons have also hindered the ICRC and other humanitarian agencies in providing vital aid to victims or even locked such efforts entirely.
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- The Banning of Anti-Personnel LandminesThe Legal Contribution of the International Committee of the Red Cross 1955–1999, pp. 349 - 351Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000