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6 - ICRC Position Paper No. 1 – February 1995, Landmines and Blinding Weapons: From Expert Group to the Review Conference

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

Louis Maresca
Affiliation:
International Committee of the Red Cross
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Summary

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is concerned about the mixed results of the fourth and final meeting (in Geneva from 9 to 21 January 1995) of the Group of Governmental Experts that has proposed amendments for the Review Conference of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), to be held in Vienna from 25 September to 13 October 1995.

On the one hand, the ICRC welcomes the Group's recommendation that the Convention's restrictions on the use of landmines be extended to apply to internal armed conflicts. The ICRC also welcomes the group of governmental experts' decision to send the draft text for a new Protocol, prohibiting the use of blinding laser weapons, to the Review Conference.

On the other hand, the ICRC is concerned that the proposed new restrictions on landmines which have achieved the most support to date are both too complex and too weak. When combined with the lack of agreement on verification and enforcement measures, there is a real danger that the steps taken by the Review Conference will fail to have a significant impact on civilian casualties. The ICRC remains convinced that a total ban on mines is the only effective means of containing the current global disaster.

EXPERT GROUP PROPOSALS TO THE REVIEW CONFERENCE

Landmines

The proposals which received the most support in the Group of Experts and which will be before the Review Conference are as follows:

  1. All anti-personnel mines must be detectable;

  2. Remotely delivered mines must contain a self-destructing mechanism; and

  3. All hand or vehicle emplaced anti-personnel mines used outside of marked, guarded and fenced minefields should have a self-destructing mechanism.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Banning of Anti-Personnel Landmines
The Legal Contribution of the International Committee of the Red Cross 1955–1999
, pp. 328 - 331
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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