The international treaty to ban landmines will "enter into force faster than any other major treaty in history," Ms Jody Williams said yesterday.
Ms Williams, co-recipient with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines of the 1997 Nobel Prize for peace, was speaking at the Landmine Monitor Conference in Dublin Castle, where campaigners celebrated as Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso became the 39th and 40th countries to sign the Ottowa Treaty, thus turning it into international law. She praised the contribution made by Ireland, one of the first three countries to sign and ratify the accord.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said it was a unique achievement to reach this point before the first anniversary of the conclusion of negotiations. "When we began the Ottowa process two years ago, few would have believed we would have achieved the long-cherished dream of a total ban on anti-personnel mines in such a short period."