1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or APMBC) is part of the international response to the widespread suffering caused by anti-personnel mines. The Convention is based on customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable to all states. These rules prohibit the use of weapons which by their very nature do not discriminate between civilians and combatants or which cause unnecessary suffering or superfluous injury. The Convention was opened for signature in Ottawa on 3 December 1997 and entered into force on 1 March 1999.