Building a norm: the banning of anti-personnel landmines

Anti-personnel (AP) landmines have historically been used as a military tool. The humanitarian consequences of AP mines have generated support for an absolute ban on their use. Based on pre-existing principles of humanitarian law, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) campaigned for an international agreement banning AP mines. Canada and a group of like-minded states and NGOs provided the leadership and momentum necessary to gain a broad support for the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits AP mines. The qualities of the treaty, including timeliness and unequivocal language have helped to create a norm against landmines within the international community. By surveying trends of recent landmine behaviour, this paper documents a trend of growing support and acknowledgement of the norm. This project will demonstrate how recent behaviour by many state actors is largely consistent with a constructivist explanatory perspective of international affairs.