Las minas antipersonal

This essay provides a general overview of the efforts undertaken to ensure the effective enforcement of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. The author stresses the important role humanitarian organizations, such as the International Red Cross, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and NGOs, have played at helping raise public awareness of this problem on an international scale. Among these efforts, of particular relevance is the role played by Mexico as a participant and active promoter of the negotiations. The Convention was signed in Ottawa in 1997 and came into effect in March of 1999. Rovirosa discusses the most significant aspects of its Preamble and articles, in addition to Mexico’s contribution to the document and the various mechanisms for its enforcement. According to the author, a follow-up of the Convention poses many challenges that will have to be addressed at meetings of the Member States and through intersessional work, together with the organized participation of civil society. She concludes by saying that, as one of the main authors of the Ottawa Convention, it is Mexico’s duty to continue promoting its precepts.