Landmine
Monitor is an unprecedented initiative by the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines (ICBL), 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. It is the first
time that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are coming together in
a coordinated, systematic and sustained way to monitor a disarmament or
humanitarian law treaty, in this case the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and to
assess more generally the efforts of the international community to resolve
the global landmine crisis which sees thousands of innocent people maimed
or killed every year. Researchers in more than eighty nations gathered
information to produce this 1,100-page book, which contains reports on
the landmines situation in every country of the world. It has the most
complete and accurate information available. The report assesses the policies
and actions of treaty States Parties, signatories and non- signatories,
in order to establish whether the Mine Ban Treaty and the norm it has established
is making a difference today to the people who need their land cleared
of this weapon and their lives, communities and societies rebuilt. To date,
135 governments have signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and 74 have ratified.
It became binding international law on the first of March 1999.