The Austrian government had prepared a draft treaty text at the end of 1996, which ultimately formed the basis for the anti-personnel mine ban Convention finally adopted at the Oslo Diplomatic Conference in September 1997. The Expert Meeting on the Convention for the Prohibition of Anti-personnel Mines was, however, convened to enable States to discuss the content of such a Convention in general terms, rather than to propose or to negotiate specific language. In addressing the meeting, the ICRC outlined what it believed to be the key elements in the treaty:

• a clear and unambiguous definition of an anti-personnel mine;

• a comprehensive prohibition on all anti-personnel mines, not the step-by-step approach favoured by certain governments;

• a verification mechanism, but not at the expense of a clear norm prohibiting anti-personnel mines;

• the importance of the ultimate – rather than the immediate – universality of the norm.

In the subsequently revised draft of the Convention, the ICRC was pleased to note that the definition of an anti-personnel mine no longer included the word ‘primarily’, even though anti-vehicle mines equipped with anti-handling devices were specifically excluded from the scope of the treaty.