The United Nations Response to the Crisis of Landmines in the Developing World

Introduction. Although the United Nations has frequently been criticized for responding too slowly to problems in the developing world, it can take pride in having been among the first to recognize the crisis of antipersonnel landmines. Ever since the issue was first raised in 1992 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, key actors at the United Nations-including the Secretary General and other senior executives in the departments of Peacekeeping, Humanitarian Affairs, the High Commissioner on Refugees, and UNICEF-have been forthright on the need to take action against this problem.\u27 The brief but specific mention of landmines in the Secretary General\u27s 1992 Agenda for Peace served as an early-but hardly premature-wake-up call to the world that the problem of landmines was out of control. These U.N. organizations deserve credit for helping to identify and bring to public attention an issue of such importance to the developing world