Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Co-Laureate, calls for stronger action to meet treaty obligations and assist survivors

Jody Williams: speaking at the opening press conference for the 6th Meeting of States Parties.

“Thank you very much. I will only take a couple of minutes to underscore a couple of points that Ambassador Petritsch has made already. Part of the reason why this treaty continues to function is because of the partnership between civil society and governments. Not just civil society as expressed by the ICBL but also the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN agencies working together to make sure that this treaty is a success. As I’ve said several times over these last couple of days, it is the one of the few treaties being enforced in the world. It combines disarmament, humanitarian law, and it is succeeding. In this world of violence and the undermining of international law, we see that we are still able to come together and be accountable to make our world without anti-personnel landmines.

Landmine Monitor 2005 goes over all of the continuing successes and the markers of progress and the challenges facing us. So I won’t go over all of those. The Monitor covers the ongoing success as well as the challenges facing the international community. There will be a full briefing on the Landmine Monitor at 2 o’clock (1400) in Room Three down the hall. The other point that I would like to make was also made by Ambassador Petritsch, is the important work of Croatia and the example that it sets for mine clearance. As has been pointed out, this country is one of the few mine-affected countries in the world that has made a significant commitment of its own resources in that regard. It's tremendous and commendable and if they can assist other nations that have a mine problem; they can look at the work of Croatia and follow their example if they are going to truly eliminate anti-personnel landmines.

From Nairobi to the next review conference, the biggest challenge facing our work will be getting rid of the landmines in the ground so that countries that are contaminated can meet their treaty obligations and that it’s not just an exercise to get the mines out of the ground, a feel good exercise, but treaty obligations in Article Five of the Treaty.

One of the big challenges facing us now is to clearly understand and define how states actually apply Article Five to get the mines out of the ground. And if they can’t meet the deadlines, how do we address that in these annual meetings.

6MSP opening press conference.

Finally, and I always have to add this, another important challenge is how do we deal with the landmine survivors. Although, obligations in the Treaty about stockpiling, destruction, and the call for better mine action, about getting the mines out of the ground are pretty clear, that’s not the fullness of how states should address the needs landmine survivors...(Obviously, the young people think that the survivors need to be dealt with better too.)

After all, this is the concern of the treaty and if we do not meet the needs of the survivors then we have failed dramatically. This is my third trip to this fantastically beautiful country. All of these times have been around the landmine issue, and I hope to come back on vacation as a tourist and when I do, I am sure that it will be to a Croatia free of landmines because of the dedication of this country to getting rid of the contamination problem.

Thank you”