Printed from: www.icbl.org/news
News from the ICBL and its members, plus external news items. Members can also access our Media Reports: weekly internet scans of news on landmines. Articles here date back to 1998 when the ICBL website was first launched.
Sort by: Last update
Next » 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ...78
The 9th Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 24-28 November 2008. All members of the ICBL delegation participating in the 9MSP, sponsored and non-sponsored, must register online with the ICBL. Detailed information and registration forms are available in the 9MSP section.
More than two dozen African governments announce their intent to sign the treaty on 3 December 2008
(Kampala, Uganda, September 30, 2008) - With two months remaining until the international treaty banning cluster bombs is opened for signature in Norway, civil society representatives are calling on all states to announce their intent to sign. All of the 42 African states gathered in Kampala for a regional conference today agreed to an action plan that calls for the earliest possible signature and ratification and 28 made firm commitments to sign on December 3 2008. Most if not all the 107 states that adopted the treaty in Dublin last May are expected to sign in Oslo and worldwide a total of 43 governments have already committed do so.
(Sofia, September 18, 2008) – Today the Cluster Munition Coalition challenged governments of southeast Europe to sign the new international treaty banning cluster bombs when it is opened for signature this December.
The campaign issued its call at the opening of a regional meeting on cluster munitions in Sofia, Bulgaria.
(Kampala, Uganda: 29 September 2008) – Forty African governments gathered in Uganda today at a meeting to promote signature of a groundbreaking treaty banning cluster bombs. The Cluster Munition Coalition, an international network of campaigners and cluster bomb survivors, called on all African governments to unite in signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008.
Panel of speakers at the Briefing. Copyright ICBL.
In the lead up to the African Conference on Cluster Munitions, which will be held in Kampala, Uganda on 29-30 September 2008, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), held a 16 September lunchtime briefing for African Missions in Geneva on the historic new Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The CCM was negotiated in May and adopted in Dublin by 107 countries on 30 May 2008 and will be signed in Oslo, Norway on 3 December 2008 in the successful culmination of the “Oslo Process on Cluster Munitions”.
Welcome to the September 2008 issue of the ICBL newsletter.
Contents include an editorial on the urgency to protect civilians from indiscriminate weapons; articles on: the complementary nature of the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions, lessons learned on victim assistance, non-compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty provisions, the People's Treaty, Landmine Monitor Report 2008, as well as news in brief and news from the campaigns.
The ICBL welcomed today the recent destruction of 392 antipersonnel landmines by the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), in Koya, northern Iraq. The news was announced by Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call in a press release on 1 September 2008.
After admitting use, Georgia must sign global treaty banning weapon
(Geneva, September 2, 2008) – A network of 250 non-governmental organisations across 70 countries has condemned Georgia’s use of cluster munitions, just three months after 107 nations agreed to ban the weapon. In a letter to Human Rights Watch, the Georgian Defense Ministry stated that cluster bombs were “used against Russian military equipment and armament marching from Roki tunnel to Dzara road [sic],” but that they “were never used against civilians, civilian targets and civilian populated or nearby areas.” The majority of the world's nations that have banned the weapon have declared any use of any cluster munition in any location unacceptable, because of the harm they cause to civilians during and after conflict.
On 25-27 August, Prince Mired Raad Al-Hussein of Jordan, President of the 8th Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, visited Poland to urge Polish authorities to ratify the treaty without further delay.
In 2008, U.S. Federal employees can support the ICBL through the Combined Federal Campaign - the world's largest workplace fundraising drive.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) today condemned the recent kidnapping of a group of Afghan deminers and called for the immediate release of the six men still being held captive. Unfortunately, attacks on deminers are not infrequent in Afghanistan and, if action is not taken to curb them, they risk jeopardising vital clearance operations.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) strongly condemned Russia today for the use of cluster bombs in Georgia which resulted in at least 11 civilians being killed and dozens injured.
On 24 July 2008 in Somalia, the Puntland Mine Action Centre, with technical support from Mines Advisory Group, destroyed 48 stockpiled antipersonnel mines near Garowe. This was the first officially recorded destruction of antipersonnel mine stocks in Puntland.
The reports of antipersonnel mine use by the Taliban received over the past 18 months are very worrying as – if confirmed – they would signal a shift from the Taliban’s publicly declared policy of endorsing the mine ban.
On 21 May, the Polisario Front destroyed 2,000 antipersonnel mines at Tifariti in Western Sahara. According to data provided by Polisario, this included mines of Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Belgian, Romanian, former Yugoslav and Soviet manufacture.