Takoma Park, Maryland — On the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, Handicap International is alarmed at the dire situation facing the country’s civilians. Nearly 250,000 civilians died or were injured in Iraq between March 2003 and January 2012—equivalent to more than 75 civilian victims every day. During the same period, civilians accounted for nearly 80% of deaths recorded in the country.

The number of small arms circulating within Iraq is on the rise, and very often these weapons fall into the hands of inexperienced civilians. More than half of civilian deaths or injuries since 2003 have been caused by small arms. “The holders of these firearms do not know how to use them properly and they are not given safety training,” explains Sylvie Bouko, Handicap International’s conventional weapons risk reduction technical advisor. “It’s very common, during celebrations, when a lot of people fire into the air, for people to be injured or even killed. This is totally unacceptable.”

The threat from millions of landmines and explosive remnants of war has increased the hardships. After decades of conflict, Iraq is thought to be the world’s most heavily polluted country for landmines and explosive remnants of war. It is likely to take several decades to clear more than 1,700 sq.km of contaminated land. Since 2001, more than 20,000 people have fallen victim to these weapons. Eighty percent of affected areas in the south consist of agricultural land farmed by the country’s poorest people. Without any other means of earning a livelihood, these small farmers put their lives on the line by entering the mined areas.

Handicap International has responded by stepping up its activities in Iraq. The charity has operated in the country since 1991, performing demining, risk education and orthopedic-fitting activities. Handicap International currently trains Iraqi workers to make thousands of people aware of the dangers posed by mines and explosive remnants of war. From April 2013, the charity hopes to add a risk education component to its activities to reduce the number of accidents involving small arms.

“We need the international community to support efforts to secure a far-reaching treaty banning the illicit trade of these arms,” says Elizabeth MacNairn, executive director of Handicap International’s U.S. office. The United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty meets this week in New York, and ends March 28.

About Handicap International
Co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent international aid organization. It has been working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster for 30 years. Working alongside persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony focus on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions, and promoting respect for their dignity and basic rights. Since 1982, Handicap International has set up development programs in more than 60 countries and intervenes in numerous emergency situations. The network of eight national associations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) works constantly to mobilize resources, jointly manage projects and to increase the impact of the organization's principles and actions. Handicap International is one of six founding organizations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and winner of the 2011 Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Handicap International takes action and campaigns in places where “standing tall” is no easy task.

Contacts
Mica Bevington, Director of Communications and Marketing
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3531
[email protected]

Molly Feltner, Communications and Marketing Officer
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3528
[email protected]

Handicap International is calling on the Obama administration to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Takoma Park, Maryland — March 1 marks the fourteenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty, and campaigners from around the world continue to call on the United States to announce the conclusion of its landmine policy review and plans to join the treaty.

The Obama administration initiated a review of U.S. landmine policy in late 2009 in response to the outcry of the global community. At the Mine Ban Treaty’s December 2012 Meeting of States Parties, the United States observer delegation stated that the U.S. will be announcing the outcome of its three year review of its landmine policy “soon.”

“We are excited that the review will come to an end in the coming months,” said Zach Hudson, coordinator of the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL). “The world anxiously waits to hear news of U.S. progress towards accession to the Mine Ban Treaty.”

While the U.S. gives more money for minefield clearance than any other country—and has not used landmines since 1991 (in the first Gulf War), has not exported them since 1992 and has not produced landmines since 1997, it still retains millions of stockpiled antipersonnel mines for potential future use and is one of only 36 countries in the world that have not joined the Mine Ban Treaty.

“The administration needs to embrace the Mine Ban Treaty and announce concrete plans for a comprehensive ban on antipersonnel mines,” said Hudson. “Steps should be taken now to begin destruction of landmine stockpiles and guarantee that the U.S. will never again use this weapon that has been condemned by the vast majority of the world’s nations, including every other NATO member.”

Over the past three years, President Obama and his administration have received letters of support for U.S. accession to the Mine Ban Treaty from 68 Senators, nearly 100 leaders of prominent U.S. nongovernmental organizations, key NATO allies, U.S. military personnel, 16 Nobel Peace Prize recipients, landmines survivors and countless citizens from around the world.

By joining the treaty, the U.S. would help send a clear signal that all types of antipersonnel mines are unacceptable weapons. Joining would also encourage other remaining outlier states to accede and strengthen international security.

From March 1 to April 4—the U.N.’s International Day for Mine Awareness, the USCBL will be joining the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in the global Lend Your Leg campaign. The Lend Your Leg concept—asking individuals to roll up their pant leg as a symbolic gesture to say "no more landmines" in order to urge decision makers to take action—was launched by the Colombian NGO Fundación Arcángeles in 2011 to call attention to the issue of landmines and their devastating effect on communities in Colombia and throughout the world.

Beginning today, Lend Your Leg campaigners from around the world are launching events to urge governments that remain outside the Mine Ban Treaty to join immediately and urging all governments to take steps towards achieving a mine-free world including: speeding clearance of contaminated land, providing more and better assistance to survivors, their families and communities, and destruction of all remaining stockpiles of antipersonnel mines.

About the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
The USCBL, currently coordinated by Handicap International, is a coalition of thousands of people and U.S. non-governmental organizations working to: (1) ensure no U.S. use, production, or transfer of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions; (2) encourage the U.S. to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions; and (3) secure high levels of U.S. government support for clearance and assistance programs for victims of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war. The USCBL is the U.S. affiliate of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)—the co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize—and is a member of the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international coalition working to protect civilians from the effects of cluster munitions by promoting universal adherence to and full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. www.uscbl.org

Contacts
Zach Hudson, Coordinator
United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
+1 (917) 860-1883
[email protected]

Mica Bevington, Director of Communications and Marketing
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3531
[email protected]

Molly Feltner, Communications and Marketing Officer
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3528
[email protected]

Takoma Park, Maryland — Handicap International is calling on the Obama administration to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The life-saving treaty marks its 14th year of entry into force on March 1, counting 161 States Parties, but countries including China, Iran, Russia, Syria and the U.S. have yet to join.

More than 1.1 million people have signed Handicap International petitions pushing for the eradication of landmines since 1995. In the past five months, the charity has collected an additional 52,868 signatures—34,082 from Americans—urging President Obama to submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification now.

The U.S. has an estimated stockpile of 10.4 million anti-personnel mines. However, it has not used antipersonnel mines since 1991 or produced new ones since 1997. The U.S. is the only member of NATO and the only country in the western hemisphere, aside from Cuba, that has not joined the treaty. Despite not being a States Party to the treaty, the U.S. has committed more than any other country to landmine clearance, victim assistance, and other mine action, supplying $534.5 million in aid since 2007.

The Treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Since its creation, almost 4,000 km² of mined land has been cleared and nearly 135 million landmines have been destroyed. However, millions of landmines, some dating back to World War II, still lay hidden in more than 60 countries.

These indiscriminate weapons and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) cannot mark the difference between the step of a solider or that of a child. They claim roughly one new victim every two hours. According to the 2012 Landmine Monitor, more than 70 percent of victims are civilians and of these, 42 percent are children. The report also states that there are hundreds of thousands of landmine survivors and most will need support for the rest of their lives.

“The use of anti-personnel landmines is a very serious violation of humanitarian principles,” says Elizabeth MacNairn, executive director of Handicap International U.S. “Placed during periods of conflict, anti-personnel mines affect innocent civilians first and foremost, even long after conflicts have ended.”

The Mine Ban Treaty was signed in 1997, following the campaigning of Handicap International and five other organizations. For its efforts, Handicap International and its partners were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

In 2009, President Obama launched a review of the U.S. landmine policy to determine whether the U.S. will join the treaty. In a statement delivered in December, at the 12th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva, Steven Costner, deputy director of Weapons Removal and Abatement at the U.S. Department of State, said “our review has identified operational issues related to accession that require careful consideration. This consideration is ongoing, and we expect to be able to announce a decision soon.” He later defined “soon”—before the November 2013 Meeting of States Parties.

“As a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, President Obama has the moral responsibility to take a firm stand against landmines,” says MacNairn.

About Handicap International
Co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent international aid organization. It has been working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster for 30 years. Working alongside persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, our actions and testimony focus on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions, and promoting respect for their dignity and basic rights. Since 1982, Handicap International has set up development programs in more than 60 countries and intervenes in numerous emergency situations. The network of eight national associations (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) works constantly to mobilize resources, jointly manage projects and to increase the impact of the organization's principles and actions. Handicap International is one of six founding organizations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and winner of the 2011 Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Handicap International takes action and campaigns in places where “standing tall” is no easy task.

Contacts
Mica Bevington, Director of Communications and Marketing
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3531
[email protected]

Molly Feltner, Communications and Marketing Officer
Handicap International US
+1 (240) 450-3528
[email protected]

People in Laos have been living with unexploded ordnance (UXO), most of it from the U.S., for more than 40 years.

Not long ago, 13-year-old Amadou Hamadoune Diallo was playing with two friends near the ancient city of Timbuktu in northern Mali when they spotted what looked a toy—a hard black ball.

Along the rugged western border of Thailand, more than 127,000 refugees and unregistered asylum seekers from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) live in nine camps with little or no contact with the outside world. 

Islamist militants have left Mali's famous city of Timbuktu, but civilians are still in grave danger.

As the conflict in northern Mali intensifies, civilians must be protected and humanitarian organizations need better access to the nearly 230,000 people who fled fighting near their homes for safer regions of the country.

Handicap International strongly condemns the reported use of cluster munitions by the Syrian state in the northern regions of Idlib and Latamneh.