INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANDMINES

also called International Landmines Coalition, international organization established in 1992 to ban the production, delivery, stockpiling, and deployment of antipersonnel land mines. In 1997 the campaign was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, which it shared with its chief coordinator, Jody Williams of the United States. At that time, the campaign comprised a coalition of 1,000 humanitarian, medical, and developmental groups from more than 50 nations. Its steering committee, under the leadership of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, was made up of nine international organizations. In November 1991, two agenciesVietnam Veterans of America Foundation and German-based Medico Internationalagreed to launch the International Campaign to Ban Landmines the following year, with Williams at the helm. The campaign hoped to address the failures of the 1980 Geneva Convention on Inhumane Weapons, which was unable to effect an absolute ban on antipersonnel land minesalthough attending nations, reconvening later in the mid-1990s, agreed to standardize specifications for producing the weapons. The campaign was successful in coordinating land mine removal and influencing various countries to destroy national stockpiles and pass legislation restricting the weapons' production, export, and use. Their efforts culminated in an absolute ban of antipersonnel land mines in a treaty adopted by 89 nations in Oslo, Nor., in September 1997; the treaty was signed in December 1997 in Ottawa, Can., and was expected to go into effect by the end of the century. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines was instrumental in researching and publicizing the problems of antipersonnel land mines, which are smaller but more prevalent than antitank land mines. Antipersonnel land mines saw increasing use in wars of the late 20th century because of their ease of placement and element of terrorism and surprise. The campaign reported that in the late 1990s, there were an estimated 110 million antipersonnel land mines in about 68 countries that maimed or killed mostly civilians at the rate of 26,000 persons per year. Because minefields were more likely to be found in developing nations recovering from recent warssuch as Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Cambodiaresulting deaths and injuries took a tremendous toll on overburdened health services. National finances were also drained by the cost of individual land mine removal (about $1,000), which greatly outweighed the cost of manufacture (about $5), and by the presence of unexploded land mines, which restricted access to land used for agriculture, public utilities, and transportation.