Amid a regional war in which its civilians have been attacked and displaced by Israel, Lebanon has done what some observers might consider surprising. On May 1, it acceded to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention. Negotiated in 1997 and ratified by 164 states, the pact prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines due to their indiscriminate impact on civilians.
Lebanon’s decision, which was welcomed by humanitarian organizations, flies in the face of expectations that besieged countries retreat from humanitarian norms rather than embrace them. Iran, for example, has used cluster munitions—weapons that break apart into bomblets and scatter indiscriminately across wide areas—against Israel, while Ukraine is using them to defend against Russia. And several Eastern and Northern European states have joined Ukraine in withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention altogether, fearing Russian aggression. In this context, the fact that Lebanon instead joined the Ottawa Convention during an ongoing war underscores the enduring strength of these humanitarian norms.
That strength is also evident in the big picture. Of the 164 parties to the Ottawa Convention, 163 are in full compliance with the treaty: Only Guinea has failed to verify destruction of its mine stockpiles. But focusing on treaty compliance by state parties actually underestimates the effects of these norms, because non-parties generally comply with its provisions as well. In the case of the Cluster Munitions Convention, which was negotiated a decade later than the Ottawa treaty, only 111 countries have ratified it so far, but at least 34 non-parties are also in complete compliance with the agreement to not produce, use, stockpile or transfer cluster munitions.