The conference, organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the ICRC, commemorates the 140th anniversary of the St Petersburg Declaration, an international treaty prohibiting the use of certain explosive weapons which was adopted in 1868 at the initiative of the military authorities of Imperial Russia.

"The St Petersburg Declaration was the first treaty to ban certain weapons," said Mr Kellenberger. "Its fundamental principles and its spirit are central to a number of treaties of international humanitarian law that limit or prohibit the use of a variety of contemporary weapons, and so are still relevant today."

In St. Petersburg, Mr. Kellenberger also had a bilateral meeting with the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.