A number of countries unilaterally declared moratoria or bans on the export, production or use of AP mines, but as recently as 1994, an immediate and global ban on AP mines was considered unrealistic. Canada, as a nation involved in peacekeeping, humanitarian demining, and as a donor of international development assistance, has a special interest in ensuring that no more AP mines are planted. At that conference, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, invited all states to work with Canada in negotiating a treaty banning AP mines to be signed by December 1997. The list is growing. Austria prepared and circulated a draft treaty text, which has been the basis of extensive bilateral and multilateral consultations throughout 1997, including at a meeting of 111 countries in Vienna, Austria and 120 countries in Bonn, Germany.
Resolutions are only effective when backed by a commitment to take action.
More and more states now view the Ottawa Process as a concrete expression of this resolution. Our aim is to ensure that as many as possible are present in Ottawa to sign a ban treaty in December 1997. The aim of the Ottawa Process is to conclude a treaty banning AP mines, and create a new norm against the use of these horrendous, indiscriminate weapons. Once a treaty is in place, it will give the international community a specific platform from which to urge nations that have not yet signed to sign a treaty which is supported by a broadly-based cross secton of the international community. Some countries see the AP mine issue as primarily a question of national security and have argued that a ban on AP mines should be negotiated within the Geneva Conference on Disarmament.