The following press release was issued by the ICRC in Kigali on 16 May 2007

The round table was held in the framework of the implementation of the mechanism for the ratification and adhesion to conventions and international treaties on international humanitarian law (IHL).

The meeting brought together legal advisers from various ministries and institutions concerned with the ratification and implementation of this Convention. Its objective was to examine in depth certain legal issues and to encourage Rwanda, a country that attaches great importance to international conventions, to become a party to the CCW.

The 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons applies to specific weapons. Its five Protocols relate to: non-detectable fragments; the prohibition or the restriction of the use of mines, booby-traps and other devices; the prohibition or the restriction of the use of incendiary weapons, blinding laser weapons and explosive remnants of war. The Convention's is aim to protect civilians against the effects of weapons used in a war, as well as combatants against the suffering that could be inflicted upon them in an unnecessary manner in the achievement of a legitimate military goal.

In Rwanda, a country that experienced war in the 1990s, mines still exist, as do explosives and other remnants of weapons which can cause injury to the civilian population, despite the fact that the country has been stable for more than a decade. There is, therefore, an imperative need to put in place mechanisms to protect the population.

For some years, ICRC has been supporting the efforts of the Government of Rwanda to ratify conventions and treaties related to IHL.