Gittoes had first encountered the victims of landmines in Nicaragua in 1986, and continued to meet them, in Cambodia, the Middle East and elsewhere. “For me,” Gittoes wrote, “landmines are the most damning proof of man’s inhumanity to man – while the moments spent with mine victims have given me some of the most encouraging proof of the strength of the human spirit.” In 1999 and 2000 he travelled widely to mine-affected areas: Thailand, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, East Timor, Congo and Rwanda, leading in 2000 to an exhibition, "Minefields", in aid of victims and to support the international campaign (in which Australians took a leading role) to ban anti-personnel mines. As well as shows in Australia and Russia, the exhibition was displayed in the United Nations office in Geneva, in the Palais des Nations, the old headquarters building of the League of Nations.