The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. It is usually referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.
The Convention was concluded by the Diplomatic Conference on an International Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Land Mines at Oslo on 18 September 1997.
In accordance with its article 15, the Convention was opened for signature at Ottawa, Canada, by all States from 3 December 1997 until 4 December 1997, and remained open thereafter at the United Nations Headquarters in New York until its entry into force on 1 March 1999.
The Convention is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval of the Signatories, as well as to accession by any State which has not signed it. This means that the State shall formally declare its consent to be bound by the Convention in accordance with its constitutional arrangements for adherence to an international agreement. These constitutional arrangements generally require domestic action by the national parliament. Once the domestic requirements have been completed, the State concerned shall deposit the instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his capacity as the Convention’s depositary, thus indicating adherence to the Convention (Article 16).
The Convention is signed by 133 States. Today it has 164 States parties. To see its accession status, please click here.
Text of the Convention
The text of the Convention is available for download in the six official UN languages: English, Español, Français, русский, عربى, 中文
Latest UNGA Resolution
On 10 December 2019, resolution 74/61 titled “Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction” was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations by a recorded vote of 161 in favour to none against, with 19 abstentions.
