ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the treaty frameworks developed to halt the humanitarian crisis caused by land mines, analysing the revisions to the IWC, the start of the so-called ‘Ottawa Process’ and the problems associated with placing land mines on the Conference on Disarmament agenda. Before elaborating on the revisions made to the Land Mines Protocol, it must be pointed out that the process of the Review Conference itself marked a critical sea-change for the campaign to ban land mines. The original Protocol had been criticized as ineffective almost from the start. It had not halted the devastation imposed on civilians by these weapons nor had it changed the mindset of much of the military and political establishments who believed they were necessary. At the end of 1996, the United Kingdom indicated its belief that the Conference on Disarmament should be the forum for the land mines debate.
