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The Ottawa Treaty, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, is an international agreement to ban landmines. Signed by 122 countries in 1997, it became binding law in 1999. The treaty requires signatories to never use, produce, acquire, or transfer landmines, destroy all mines in their stockpiles within four years, remove all mines from their territory within 10 years, and offer assistance to other treaty members in demining. As of 2010, 156 countries had ratified the treaty, while 39, including the US, Russia, and China, had not signed.
The Ottawa Treaty is the common term for an international treaty aimed at banning landmines. The treaty is also sometimes referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty, although its official title is “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction”. The Ottawa Treaty was signed by 122 countries on December 3, 1997 in Ottawa, Canada, and became binding law on all signatories on March 1, 1999. The Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor estimates that between 1999 and 2009 , the treaty resulted in the destruction of 2.2 planted antipersonnel mines and another 44 million stockpiled mines.
A landmine is an explosive military device designed to be concealed underground and is specifically targeted at human targets. The mine can be a blast maker, a fragmentation device that projects metal fragments, or a bounding device that snaps into the air and then releases projectiles in all directions. The mine explodes when a person sets off its detonator by direct pressure or proximity. Article 2 of the Ottawa Treaty defines these devices as designed to injure or injure people and differentiates them from anti-tank and anti-tank mines which are not covered by the treaty.
The law is considered to be in effect six months after a country signs the Ottawa Treaty, which is housed in the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. By 2010, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) reported that 156 countries had ratified the treaty. 39 other countries, including the United States, the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, have not signed. Additionally, the ICBL says that most non-signatory countries, including the United States, are complying with and complying with the terms of the Ottawa Treaty with only two countries, Russia and Myanmar, continuing to use landmines as of 2010.
Among other requirements, nations signing the Ottawa Treaty are required never to use, produce, acquire, or transfer landmines. They must destroy all mines in their stockpiles within four years, remove all mines from their territory within 10 years, and offer assistance to other treaty members in demining. In addition, signatories are required to approve national legislation banning landmines. Each nation must also submit an annual report to the United Nations stating how many and what types of mines it has, where the mines are located, the state of the mines’ production facilities, the number of mines destroyed, and the decommissioned status of the nation’s mines. .
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