A treaty banning landmines and championed by Princess Diana becomes international law today. More than 120 states have signed up to the Ottawa Treaty, which outlaws the use, production, trade and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines.
The signatories - which do not include the US, Russia or China - have four years to destroy existing stocks and are obliged to help clear mines and assist people maimed by them.
The Ottawa Treaty was driven forward by a Nobel prize-winning campaign, and was signed in the Canadian capital in December 1997. Britain announced last week it had destroyed all the army's two million anti-personnel mines.
The US refused to sign after failing to secure a nine-year exemption for mines laid on South Korea's border with North Korea. Russia has undertaken to sign up, but China has refused, citing self-defence. Other non-signatories include India, Pakistan, North and South Korea, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait.
Pope John Paul said yesterday the convention marked a "triumph of the culture of life over the culture of death" and urged all countries to sign it without delay.