3MSP Opening Address of ICBL Ambassador Jody Williams

(Thursday 20 September 2001 Managua - Nicaragua) to the Third Meeting of States Parties of the Mine Ban Treaty

[In Spanish] “Before I go on in my own language, I want to thank the government of Nicaragua for deciding to go on with this important conference under these most difficult circumstances. I also want to offer my congratulations to His Excellency, the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua for his election as President of this Conference.”

I am a citizen of the United States of America. It is impossible to begin speaking here at this Conference without first recognizing the terrorist acts that happened one week ago today in my country. I ask you now to join me in a moment of silence for the thousands of victims who lost their lives in the United States….

The terrorist acts in New York and Washington were so dramatic, so unexpected in their scope and magnitude, that at the moment they seem to overshadow everything else. For some, even a week later, it still does not seem real. For too many the harsh and cruel reality will not hit home until the bodies of the friends and family members they have lost are found and they are buried.

Terrorism has many faces. The acts of 11 September are of the most dramatic, but we are gathered here in Managua from around the world to deal with acts of terror less visible. Terror that claims innocent victims on a daily basis around the world. Antipersonnel landmines terrorize communities and destroy lives every single day. We in the ban movement have long called landmines a different kind of terror – a weapon of mass destruction in slow motion.

Now, I would ask you to join me in a moment of silence for the victims of these daily acts of terror -- the thousands of victims of antipersonnel landmines in too many countries around the world….

People around the world are deeply anxious and concerned about many things in the aftermath of 11 September. For us now here at the Third Meeting of States Parties, we worried about the feasibility – indeed perhaps even the appropriateness – of carrying on with our work here this week. But ultimately we all believed it to be necessary and right to show that other issues of global concern have not lost their importance in the face of these most recent acts of terror.

So again, I wish to thank the government of Nicaragua for its courageous decision to hold this conference and to everyone here -- members of the ICBL, the government delegations, and others who have convened here today -- for coming to Managua, in spite of all of the difficulties so many faced in the mere act of getting here.

We are here this week to advance the goal of the international community in eradicating this indiscriminate weapon, in getting the mines out of the ground and in aiding the victims. We are here to assess the tremendous progress we have made together toward these goals, but also to make honest assessments of the challenges that still face us in eliminating landmines.

Civil society and governments came together in a ban movement not just to create a treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines but to ensure full compliance with that treaty. We have always said it is critical that that the treaty not just be words on paper. Part of why we are here this week is to take stock of states’ compliance with the treaty – in so doing we are also underscoring the absolute importance of the rule of law. And by being here now at this difficult time facing the international community, we do underscore the importance of international law.

We expect the President’s Action Plan that emerges from this Third Annual Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty will be a complete and unequivocal outline of how we move forward with implementing and complying with the treaty. This Action Plan will give a signal to people in the world that international law does matter.

In holding this conference now, in spite of the acts of terror and the difficulties and uncertainties that face the global community, we underscore our belief that when we work together we do better than by trying to go it alone. By being here and reinforcing the commitment to this one international treaty –the Mine Ban Treaty – we are reinforcing the importance of the rule of law everywhere.

THANK YOU.