Geneva Call

Geneva Call is an NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland that focuses on engaging armed non-state actors, such as guerrilla groups and liberation movements, to respect international humanitarian law and human rights law. Some members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines were concerned that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, was only binding on states, allowing armed non-state actors to continue using these weapons. Geneva Call was created in 1998, one year after the Ottawa Treaty was signed, to begin engaging non-state actors on the subject of landmines. However, Geneva Call took little action until March 2000, at a conference organized by the Swiss Campaign to Ban Landmines called Engaging Non-State Actors in a Landmine Ban. This conference, the first of its kind, created a foundation for approaching non-state actors about a landmine ban, and served as the official launch of Geneva Call.