• Ottawa Convention is also called as Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. The full name of the convention is, “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.”
  • The Convention was concluded by the Diplomatic Conference on an International Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Land Mines at Oslo on 18 September 1997.
  • It entered into force on 1st March 1999.
  • There are 164 members to the Ottawa Treaty or Convention.
  • Palestine is a member of the Ottawa Convention.
  • The Marshall Islands is one country that has signed the treaty but hasn’t yet ratified.
  • There are 34 non-signatories to the Mine-Ban Treaty. India too has not signed the Ottawa Convention.
  • This Convention requires states-parties,
    • To destroy their stockpiled Anti-Personnel landmines (APLs) within 4 years and
    • To eliminate all Anti-Personnel landmines (APLs) holdings, including mines currently planted in the soil, within 10 years.
  • The member states have to follow these prohibitions:
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t use anti-personnel landmines.
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t develop anti-personnel landmines.
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t acquire anti-personnel landmines.
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t retain antipersonnel landmines.
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t stockpile antipersonnel landmines.
    • Members of the Ottawa Convention can’t transfer anti-personnel landmines.
  • The significant producers and users of anti-personnel mines are US, China, India, Pakistan and Russia. These countries are one of the non-signatories.
  • The Anti-Personal Mines in India were in the use post-Indian Army’s proposal to procure over a million such mines to secure Line of Control (LoC) in 2019.
  • A scenario of US –
    • In 2004, the United States government under George W Bush announced its decision to not join Ottawa Convention.
    • In 2014, the US government under Barack Obama announced their inclination towards signing the convention. It mentioned about banning the production and acquisition of APLs and reserving their use for only on the Korean peninsula.
    • The US is a party to Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (1996 amended mines protocol). This convention does not ban the anti-personnel mine but restricts it.
  • Claymores and anti-vehicle mines are not prohibited under the Ottawa Convention.
  • Around 50 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines have been destroyed under the treaty’s provisions.
  • Each state party submits its report on the actions on anti-personnel landmines to the United Nations.