Red Cross landmine ads up for grabs

The International Committee of the Red Cross is hunting an agency to handle a cam-paign calling for a ban on landmines.

The international campaign is designed to reinforce political lobbying activities to stop the manufacture and the export of the mines which kill an estimated 800 people worldwide every month and injure thousands more.

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 100 million unexploded landmines buried around the world and the ICRC is campaigning for them to be banned.

The decision to appoint an agency has been taken ahead of the review of the United Nations Weapons Convention later this year where Governments will vote on the continued manufacture of the weapons. It will initially be a public awareness campaign to create as much public pressure as possible.

“These are weapons that governments use indiscriminately and often not mapping their whereabouts,” says one source. “The ICRC wants to apply extra pressure to force governments to take action.”