Next President Can Swiftly Make World Safer from Landmines and Cluster Munitions
(Washington, DC, October 26, 2020) Demanding a reversal of changes made in the past three years that have moved the United States further from support of international agreements banning antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions, the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition (USCBL-USCMC) issued recommendations today for the president who will be elected next month.
Review the USCBL - USCMC policy memo here
"The United States is out of step with its allies and the broader global consensus to ban landmines and cluster munitions. The election provides an opportunity for whoever is President in 2021 to reset U.S. policy and finally join the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions," said Jeff Meer, Steering Committee Chair for USCBL-USCMC and U.S. Executive Director of Humanity & Inclusion.
The recent flare up of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and international condemnation of the use of cluster munitions there has reminded the global community that these indiscriminate weapons are a danger to civilians and not yet weapons of the past. U.S. efforts to negotiate a resolution to the conflict would be aided if Washington could legitimately echo these concerns.
In 2017, the current administration reversed a policy that would have barred the use of most cluster munitions in the U.S. stockpile. The U.S. has not used cluster munitions in more than a decade.
Cluster munitions have been banned because of their widespread indiscriminate effect and long-lasting danger to civilians. Cluster munitions typically explode in the air and send dozens, even hundreds, of small bomblets over an area the size of a football field. These cluster submunitions often fail to explode on initial impact, leaving duds that act like landmines.
In the memorandum, the campaign also highlighted changes made this January to U.S. policy that would allow for use of victim-activated antipersonnel landmines anywhere in the world, instead of restricted to the Korean peninsula. The United States has not used antipersonnel landmines since 1991, excluding the use of a single munition in 2002. All other NATO allies and a total of 164 countries worldwide have agreed to universally foreswear all antipersonnel mines under the Mine Ban Treaty.
Within the first 100 days of the next administration, the campaign recommends that the President take the following steps:
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Ban the use, production, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions.
Immediately issue a policy commitment against using antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions. - Accede to the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Declare America’s intent to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
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Lay out an accelerated timeline for the destruction of stockpiled landmines and cluster munitions
Provide concrete plans and mechanisms for public reporting on progress destroying the stockpiles of these indiscriminate weapons.
U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines-U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition
The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines-U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition is the U.S. affiliate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the global Cluster Munition Coalition. The civil society coalition works to end the suffering caused by landmines and cluster munitions, which cause unacceptable harm to civilians both at their time of deployment and for decades after.
Media notes
Experts available from organizations, including Humanity & Inclusion, Human Rights Watch, Legacies of War:
Jeff Abramson
Coordinator, U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines - U.S. Cluster Munition Coalition
[email protected] | 646-527-5793
Mica Bevington
U.S. Director of Marketing and Communications, Humanity & Inclusion
[email protected] | 202-290-9264
Steve Goose
Director, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch
[email protected] | 540-630-3011
Sera Koulabdara
Executive Director, Legacies of War
[email protected] | 614-753-3725
Landmine victim to US: ban landmines!
“I was ten years old when I jumped on an anti-personnel mine in Cambodia," Gniep says as she addressed the public in front of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. "This mine took everything from me: my leg, my childhood dreams.” Gniep was one of Humanity & Inclusion's first beneficiaries from the 1980s. She was fitted with a prosthetic in the Kao I Dang camp located on the border between Cambodia and Thailand.
On January 31, the Trump Administration effectively committed the U.S. to resume the use, development, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines.
"On behalf of all mine victims around the world, I call for a the international community to push back at the Trump administration and demand the abandonment of this policy that will cause death and suffering."
Barbaric weapon from another time
Presented today by the Trump government as "an important tool," it is, however, a weapon that is designed to injure or kill. In 1997, the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty marked a real victory against these indiscriminate weapons.
“We thought we had almost won with the signing of the Ottawa Treaty, and then the drastic reduction in the number of victims year after year," Gniep continues. "After all these efforts, the mines had really become 'outlaws,' but today all this is called into question!"
This decision by the American government reasons like a thunderbolt for the thousands of victims and the hundreds of NGOs which, like Humanity & Inclusion, have campaigned for the ban on this weapon. The United States was one of the few countries that has not yet joined the Mine Ban Treaty. However, for almost 30 years, the country has abstained from using them.
Fears that trade of landmines will return
Among the 6,897 victims counted in 2018, only 332 people were victims of so-called conventional mines. The other counted victims were injured or killed by “artisanal” or improvised mines.
“The market was dry, the mines were no longer sold," said Emmanuel Sauvage, Humanity & Inclusion's Violence Reduction Officer. "With their new so-called 'smart' mines, the Trump government is making an irresponsible decision that could kick-start the market for these cowardly weapons and reach new victims."
Humanity & Inclusion and Gniep Smoeun call on Signatory States to the Ottawa Treaty to use all their weight to push back on the Trump Administration. Their appeal is launched on the occasion of the 23rd international meeting of directors of national mine action programs taking place this week at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The Ottawa Treaty prohibits the acquisition, production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel mines. It was opened for signature on December 3, 1997 and entered into force on March 1, 1999. 164 States are parties to the Treaty, or 80% of the nations of the world. The annual number of victims identified has been divided by ten in 15 years. In the early 1990s, the world tallied 30,000 victims, compared to 6,897 in 2018. Since the entry into force of the treaty in 1999, at least 2,200 km² of mined land has been cleared and States have destroyed 54 million stockpiled landmines. Mines still terrorize civilians in 60 states and territories, where mine contamination and explosive remnants of war lurk. Since 2014, the multiplication of conflicts has seen the use of mines increase.
Urgent: Demand the U.S. to change its landmine policy
Decades of campaigning to protect civilians
Humanity & Inclusion was created in 1982 in response to the horrific landmine injuries suffered by Cambodian refugees. Soon, we realized that action needed to be taken at an international level to ban these indiscriminate weapons.
Humanity & Inclusion played a key role in founding the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, for which we were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, following the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997.
We are a founding member of the Cluster Munition Coalition, and we actively support the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which came into force on August 1, 2010.
Humanity & Inclusion is also a founder and coordinating member of the annual Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, which monitors these two international treaties and produces annual reports on their implementation. And we are a founding member of the International Network on Explosive Weapons.
Yemen | A shepherdess’ fateful encounter with a landmine
On an autumn day, Raja, 13, was tending her family’s sheep on a mountainside near her home in Yemen when suddenly a loud blast shattered the quiet. Raja had stepped on a hidden landmine, and the impact of the explosion threw her into the air and tore her right leg apart. She fell to the earth unconscious and bleeding profusely.
Friends who were with her carried her to the nearest health center, where nurses saved her life by stopping the bleeding. Due to the seriousness of her condition, she was evacuated to a hospital in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where doctors amputated her badly damaged leg.
Humanity & Inclusion, which has been supporting people with disabling injuries at the Sanaa hospital since 2014, provided Raja with a wheelchair and made a rehabilitation plan to help her recover. However, the organization first addressed her mental health. An HI psychologist worked with Raja to process the trauma of her experience and help her overcome some of the anger and sadness she felt.
Two months after the surgery, when Raja’s leg was healed sufficiently, she was fitted with a prosthetic leg. Getting back on her feet had a radical impact on her morale.
Following months of rehabilitation and training, Raja felt confident walking long distances with her new leg. Her depression lifted and she looked forward to the future.
"I am happy to have faced my fears,” says Raja. “Now I want to go back home, see my friends, and return to normal life. Before my accident, I had planned to start school. Now I want to fulfill this dream, and hopefully one day become a humanitarian worker, like the HI staff who helped me.”
Qasef: Escaping the bombing
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Qasef: Escaping the bombing (Sept 2016)
This report identifies indiscriminate bombing of civilians as the overriding factor forcing millions of Syrians to flee their homes. Based on interviews with Syrian refugees in July 2016, a document review, and expert interviews, the report identifies the large scale use of explosive weapons in populated areas as the most significant cause of the mass displacement of Syrians.
Sign upSyrian refugees: Everywhere the bombing followed us
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Everywhere the bombing followed us (Oct 2017)
This report features in-depth interviews of more than 200 Syrian refugees in Lebanon who confirm and detail the devastating and lasting social and economic effects of the use of explosive weapons. Over half of the refugees interviewed were displaced within Syria before fleeing to Lebanon, experiencing consequences ranging from personal injury to the death of one of more family members, the destruction of homes, infrastructure and/or livelihoods. The report finds women are most vulnerable.
Sign upMali: Teaching Risk Education in Post-Conflict Areas
Since March 2016, Handicap International has educated nearly 20,000 people in northern Mali about the dangers posed by small arms, light weapons, and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Due to the conflict that occurred in 2012 and 2013, northern Mali has a very high incidence of weapons-related accidents.
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Colombia | From landmine victim to pro athlete
It’s early morning in Medellin, Colombia, but the pools at Complejo Acuatico outdoor aquatics complex are already full with swimmers. In one of the pools, ten swimmers race back and forth doing the breaststroke and butterfly as a coach calls out instructions. A collection of wheelchairs and prosthetic legs rest by the side of the pool.
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