NEWS RELEASES
AXWORTHY ACCEPTS LANDMINE TREATYFROM NORWAY
September 26, 1997 No. 155
AXWORTHY ACCEPTS LANDMINE TREATY
FROM NORWAY
Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy today officially accepted the "Convention
on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction" from Norwegian Foreign Minister Bjoern
Tore Godal. The hand-over of the treaty took place in New York, where both
ministers are attending the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also attended the hand-over ceremony, and the
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga,
participated from Geneva via video link. Mr. Stephen Goose, Program Director,
International Campaign to Ban Landmines also took part.
"I am delighted to be accepting this treaty from Mr. Tore Godal today. I commend
him and the Norwegian government for their superlative work in organizing the
conference that led to the conclusion of this historic treaty. In less than 12
months, the international community has achieved an unprecedented goal by taking
the notion of a treaty to ban landmines from concept to reality. The majority of
nations in the world have recognized that it is time to put an end to these
indiscriminate weapons once and for all. Our next goal will be to see the names of
those countries that came to Oslo, and many more, inscribed indelibly on this
document," said Mr. Axworthy.
Since last October when Mr. Axworthy challenged the international community to
develop a treaty banning landmines for signature by December 1997, a broad
coalition of international players, including governments and international and
non-governmental organizations, has been engaged in a period of intense activity.
This included a series of regional meetings on all continents, parallelled by a
round of international conferences in Vienna, Brussels and, most recently, Oslo to
build government commitment and to negotiate the text of the treaty. The final
text of the treaty was negotiated and adopted in Oslo, by close to 100 countries,
during the first three weeks of September.
The treaty will open for signature at a conference in Ottawa from December 2 to 4.
Approximately 100 countries are expected to attend and sign the treaty at that
time. The Ottawa Conference will also be the platform from which Mr. Axworthy
plans to launch the next phase of the exercise, "Ottawa Process II," an
international agenda for action to move collectively towards the universalization
of the treaty and the development of substantial new international programs for
demining and victim assistance.
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For further information, media representatives may contact:
Media Relations Office
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
(613) 995-1874
This document is also available on the Department's Internet site:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
The full text of the treaty may be viewed at http://www.vvaf.org
or, may be obtained on request by calling the above number.
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