From: Sylvie Brigot and Igors Tipans
Dear all,
On 2 November 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of the government of LATVIA discussed the Draft Law on the accession to the Mine Ban Treaty. They made a positive decision and the Draft Law will be passed now to the Latvian Parliament.
It is now in the hands of Mr.Aleksandrs Kirsteins, Chairman of the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee and Mr.Juris Dalbins, Chairman of the Defence and Internal Affaires Committee to make all efforts to ensure the Law is adopted before the opening of the Nairobi Summit ! Please help us to encourage them do so now !
Use the sample letter below to write them, and propose to members of YOUR Parliament who support the Mine Ban Convention to write them too !
Don’t hesitate to contact me ( brigot@icbl.org) or Igors ( Igors.Tipans@rtu.lv) for further information or if you have question !
Thank you !
Sylvie and Igors
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Contact:
The Chairman of Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee is:
Mr.Aleksandrs Kirsteins, e-mail: Aleksandrs.Kirsteins@saeima.lv
Phone of the Commission: +371 708 7315 / Fax: +371 708 7350
The Chairman of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee is
Mr.Juris Dalbins, e-mail: Juris.Dalbins@saeima.lv
Phone: +371 708 7245 / Fax: +371 708 7229
Sample letter
Dear Mr Kirsteins,
I have just learned that the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia took the decision, on 2 November 2004, to accede to the 1997 Convention banning antipersonnel landmines, and passed the draft law to the Latvian Parliament. I am very pleased to see Latvia living up to its commitment to accede to the Convention, as President Vike-Freiberga reiterated in July, in her letter to our Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ambassador, Jody Williams.
The First Review Conference of this Convention, the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, will be held in just one month, from 29 November to 3 December, in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit will be a landmark event in the life of the Convention, and Latvia would received a very warm welcome and much positive attention in Nairobi if your country attends the Summit as a full member of the Convention.
As Chairman of the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, I call on you to make every possible effort for the accession law to go through the Parliamentary process, be adopted, and deposited at the United Nations, before the Nairobi Summit. Latvia is the only Baltic country who has not yet joined the Convention. Now that there is no opposition to accede to the Treaty, this would be more than fair and rewarding for your country to attend the Summit as a member of this Convention.
A lot has been done since the Convention entered into force on 1 March 1999, but challenges ahead of us are daunting, to ensure that mines are cleared and destroyed and that survivors receive adequate assistance. If we want the Convention to be a success, we need to renew our commitment in Nairobi, and we need Latvia to take an active part in the discussions and final documents which will chart the way forward for the full implementation and universalisation of the Treaty.
I thank you for any action you will undertake, thereby contributing greatly to our common goal: a Mine-Free World.
Signature
