SITTING on a side cabinet in my university office is a landmine. It has been defused, fortunately, and mounted on a display board. It was a presentation given to me by a group of deminers in Bosnia ten years ago. Visitors observe, with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion, the crude weapon with its pineapple-shaped steel outer shell mounted on a sharp wooden stake. They often wonder out loud what kind of perverse mind could conceive and concoct such an evil device.
Of all the destructive weapons of war devised over the millennia, landmines have been among the deadliest. They not only wreak havoc on combatants in conflict zones, but they remain, seeded and hidden in the ground long after the conflict is over, continuing to kill and maim innocent civilians.
The specimen in my office stands as a singular remembrance of the many landmine victims living and dead around the world and of the immeasurable suffering caused by this one weapon. It also serves another more positive purpose. It is a reminder that humankind can do something to control and possibly eliminate such weapons of indiscriminate violence.
Each time I look at it sitting harmless and defanged, no longer capable of discharging in someone's face or gut, it brings to mind the enormous efforts by many governments, hundreds of NGOs and thousands of ordinary people a decade ago to rid the world of landmines.
Because of these extraordinary and collaborative efforts, a treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling and trade of anti-personnel landmines was forged which, as of October 2007, has 155 state signatories.
For those nations that have not formally joined -- the United States, China and Russia among them -- the treaty now acts as a global norm, a marker that calibrates their behaviour and stigmatizes their noncompliance.
The treaty ignited a concerted global campaign to eliminate landmine use by the world's militaries, to destroy existing stockpiles, to demine, and to support the rehabilitation of landmine victims.
So far, 41.8 million stockpiled land mines have been destroyed under the treaty. Use of anti-personnel landmines is limited to only two governments, Myanmar/Burma and Russia. Global trade in landmines has virtually stopped.
However, there is much work to do. For many still remain outside the treaty and must be brought under its mandate if we are to succeed in having a landmine free world by 2020. Increasingly, anti-personnel landmines are being used by militias, warlords and terrorists against innocent civilians in countries as widely spread as Afghanistan and Colombia.
With this tenth anniversary of the treaty, imminent deadlines are approaching for the early signatories to identify and clear all landmines from areas under their control.
A number of countries are not on pace to meet this requirement. Global mine action support, which reached US $475 million in 2006, is threatened by serious underfunding. For example, Canada's special fund for landmine removal and victim assistance is virtually depleted, with only $60,000 remaining. It will run out in March of 2008 unless there is a renewed commitment by Canada's Parliament and government.
But the success of what has come to be known as the Ottawa Process cannot be measured in statistics alone. Over time, this Canadian-designed model, a partnership between NGOs, likeminded governments and international groups to achieve humanitarian policies and treaties, has served to provide an alternative to the traditional realpolitik of might makes right.
The Ottawa Process techniques have been used to achieve a new International Criminal Court, a protocol on child soldiers and are now being initiated to bring an end to the use of cluster munitions.
This process was also the spawning ground for the development of new ideas and practices centred on the notion of human security as distinct from national security. Human security focuses on the security of individuals, presenting a counterpoint to the traditional narrow focus on the integrity and defence of state borders as the sole referent of security. The parentage of the emerging global principle of the Responsibility to Protect can also be traced back to the Ottawa Process.
In a very real sense, then, the impact of the landmines treaty ranges from the very direct result of saving lives in the various killing fields around the world to being a catalyst for a new form of multi-actor diplomacy and a design for a new global political model.
It has also taught Canadians and other middle-power countries that they have a real and effective capacity to play a leadership role in a new kind of foreign policy.
Last week at The University of Winnipeg, hundreds of young people from both high schools and universities became re-engaged in the importance of landmine issues and the possibility of using the Ottawa Process to tackle global issues such as climate change and small-arm reductions.
With a new generation of young people taking on the torch, Canada has the opportunity not only to continue to honour and pursue its commitment to rid the world of landmines, but also to begin new work on a number of important humanitarian issues around the world. Canada, using the lessons of the Ottawa Process, can play a strong and leading role.
Lloyd Axworthy, president of the
University of Winnipeg, was Canada's minister of foreign affairs when the landmine treaty was negotiated and signed.
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