The political initiative launched in October 1996 and concluding with the opening for signature of the Mine Ban Treaty in Ottawa, Canada in December 1997 is sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Process.
The Axworthy challenge
Jody Williams, the ICBL’s Ambassador and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 describes how the Ottawa process gained momentum with the Axworthy Challenge:
"The primary objectives…were to develop a declaration that states would sign signaling their intention to ban antipersonnel mines and an ‘Agenda for Action’ outlining concrete steps to reach such a ban. We were all prepared for the concluding comments by Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Minister of Canada…
But the Foreign Minister did not end with congratulations. He ended with a challenge. The Canadian government challenged the world to return to Canada in a year to sign an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. Members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines erupted in cheers…It was really breath-taking.”
Drafting process
The treaty was drafted by Austria and developed in a series of meetings in Vienna, Bonn, Brussels and Oslo over the course of 1997.
A group of likeminded governments formed a "Core Group" that, in close cooperation with the NGOs of the ICBL and international organizations such as the ICRC, helped to steer the Ottawa Process. Significantly, the “friends of the Ottawa treaty” spanned the regions of the world and included representatives in both mine-affected countries and mine-producing countries.
Before the challenge by Minister Axworthy and the adoption of a “fast track” Ottawa Process, there had been a number of other attempts to find national, regional and international measures to ban landmines. And it was disappointment with these measures – their inadequacy, their slowness – that had spurred on pro-ban countries to join the Ottawa Process.
CCW - not a viable option
NGOs who witnessed the ravaging effects of mines on a daily basis grew increasingly impatient with the only treaty controlling the use of antipersonnel landmines, the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Back in 1993, the French campaign had urged then President Mitterand to call for a review conference to improve the CCW. Mitterand agreed and the date was set for 1995.
However, the 1995/6 Review Conference failed to make any significant changes to the CCW. This confirmed campaigners’ belief that a total ban was the only solution to the global mines crisis. At the same time governments were facing growing public pressure to address the landmine problem effectively and speedily.
At the end of the CCW's Review Conference process, 40 governments said they supported a total ban and began working with NGOs towards this aim. So, when the ‘Axworthy Challenge’ was issued in October 1996 governments and NGOs alike were ready to embrace the Ottawa Process that led to the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty.
