Conventional Weapons

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) entered into force in March 1999. By the end of 2001 it had been signed by 142 states and ratified by 122. This result is particularly gratifying for Austria, which drafted the text on which the convention is based. The third review conference was held in September 2001 in Managua (Nicaragua). Austria, as one of the "fathers" of the convention, was elected corapporteur of the Standing Committee on the General Status of the Convention, thereby assuming a central role and responsibility for the observance and further development of the convention. The conference agreed to set up an Implementation Support Unit within the Centre for Humanitarian Demining in Geneva, in which Austria has been a council member since its foundation in 1988.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs contributed one million euros in 2001 under its Mine Action Programme for mine clearance and destruction as well as for raising public awareness and providing aid for victims. The action was concentrated on Austria's priority partners for development assistance, especially Mozambique and Nicaragua, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia, Afghanistan and Cambodia.

Austria also promoted the implementation of the second (land mine) protocol to the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Less comprehensive than the Ottawa Convention, it counts among its High Contracting Parties several States which have not joined the Ottawa Process.

The second review conference in Geneva in December of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons extended the scope of the convention to include noninternational armed conflicts. A work programme for 2002 gives priority to dealing with "explosive remnants of war" and "mines other than anti-personnel mines". The first results are expected to be discussed at a conference in December 2002.

The illegal international trade in small arms and light weapons was the subject of a United Nations conference in New York in July. The unanimously adopted action programme contains measures at national, regional and international level for controlling the production, export and trading of these often easily available weapons. Other aspects included in the programme are marking of weapons, standards of stock control, and cooperation on post-conflict programmes. Despite these successes, not all of the high expectations that were placed in the conference were realised, but with a systematic follow-up process and a planned revision conference in 2006 it marked the start of enhanced international cooperation to gain control of the increasing problem posed by these weapons.