Nobel Peace Prize to the campaign against landmines

In 1997, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its coordinator, Jody Williams. After a broad-based international process culminating in three weeks of difficult negotiations in Oslo, the International Campaign, Jody Williams, and their many supporters achieved an important goal. On 18 September 1997, the negotiations were concluded successfully with agreement on the text of the Mine Ban Convention.

At the award ceremony on 10 December 1997, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Francis Sejerstad, said, ” There are those among us who are unswerving in their faith that things can be done to make our world a better, safer, and more humane place, and who also, even when the tasks appear overwhelming, have the courage to tackle them.” Addressing the prize winners, he continued, “You have not only dared to tackle your task, but also proved that the impossible is possible. You have helped to rouse public opinion all over the world against the use of an arms technology that strikes quite randomly at the most innocent and most defenceless. And you have opened up the possibility that this wave of opinion can be channelled into political action.” He ended his speech by saying, “ An important step has been taken. The vast problem of landmines has effectively been placed on the international agenda. The worldwide opinion has been formed that something must be done about the problem. And the practical work of freeing the world from landmines has begun. It is in admiration, and in gratitude for their efforts to achieve that aim that we honour the ICBL and Jody Williams today with the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997. The vast and laborious task of putting an end to the production and sale of mines, destroying existing mines, and helping the survivors has, however, only just begun. Let us therefore also express the hope that the process will win still greater support, so that the work can be intensified and a world without anti-personnel mines can become a reality in the foreseeable future.”