Cartagena, Colombia, 4 December 2009 -- Over 1000 activists, survivors and government delegates celebrated the close of the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World with the announcement that four new countries - Albania, Greece, Rwanda and Zambia - are now mine-free. The Summit closed with more than 120 governments adopting the Cartagena Action Plan, a detailed five-year plan of commitments on all areas of mine action including victim assistance, mine clearance, risk education, stockpile destruction and international cooperation.
Cartagena, 2 December 2009 -- In a statement Tuesday, the head of the U.S. delegation to the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty informed participants that the Obama administration has begun a comprehensive landmine policy review. In the statement, the U.S. representative said, "The Administration's decision to attend this Review Conference is the result of an on-going comprehensive review of U.S. landmine policy initiated at the direction of President Obama." Although members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines welcomed the reversal in the U.S. position and their participation at the Review Conference, campaigners remain guardedly optimistic about the motives behind such an abrupt change.
Hundreds of representatives of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, some states not party, international organizations, UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the ICBL gathered in Cartagena, Colombia from 29 November - 4 December 2009 to assess challenges in the universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, and to take stock of progress made since 2004.
