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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.
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As governments from all regions in the world gather in Oslo, Norway, today for the signing of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) also celebrates the anniversary of the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty.
The Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions were both inspired by the need to put people’s lives before any dubious political or military considerations. Together, the two conventions will create an ever stronger framework to protect civilians from further suffering and to address the effects of past use of indiscriminate weapons such as antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions.
The historic signing conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions can be watched live from Oslo, Norway, through the following link http://www.osloccm.no/live.cfm
New treaty also obligates governments to provide victim assistance and to clear contaminated land.
Oslo, Dec 3rd, 2008 - Today in Oslo, governments from around the world are signing the most significant disarmament and humanitarian treaty of the decade, banning the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, and obligating them to provide victim assistance and to clear contaminated land. Signatories of the Convention on Cluster Munitions include many of the world`s producers, stockpilers and past users, as well as some of the most seriously affected states. Close to fifty foreign, defense and government ministers from around the world are signing the treaty, demonstrating the high level of political commitment to urgently rid the world of cluster munitions.
Heads of State, Foreign Ministers and senior government representatives from over 100 countries are expected to gather in Oslo to sign a worldwide ban on the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. It will be the most significant humanitarian and disarmament treaty of the decade.
Welcome to the November 2008 issue of ICBL News.
Contents include an editorial: The Mine Ban Treaty Must Remain Strong; articles on: the extension request process, Landmine Monitor Report 2008 major findings, working to make a difference in survivors' lives, a call on states to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions by cluster munition survivor Sladjan Vuckovic, the ICBL mission to Ecuador and Peru, the Ban Bus, as well as news in brief and news from the campaigns.
Geneva, 28 November 2008 – Under pressure from the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and civil society, the United Kingdom announced that it will immediately begin demining the Falkland Islands and reaffirmed its commitment to their full clearance as soon as possible. This was the most contentious issue at the annual Meeting of States Parties which concluded today in Geneva.
Geneva, 26 November 2008 – Nobel Peace Prize laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and a long list of countries belonging to the international treaty banning antipersonnel mines today sharply criticized the United Kingdom’s failure to clear mines in the Falkland Islands.
Geneva, 24 November 2008 – Eleven years after the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, survivors of landmine blasts are still waiting for the assistance due to them under the treaty, said the Nobel Peace laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) today. Members of the ICBL from over 50 countries will make the voice of civil society heard at the 9th Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty (9MSP), starting today in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting, hundreds of delegates from governments, international agencies and civil society will assess progress in implementing the treaty’s provisions.
Three countries have failed to meet deadlines to destroy landmine stockpiles putting them in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty and 15 others have requested more time in order meet their mine clearance obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty, according to Landmine Monitor Report 2008: Toward a Mine-Free World. This 1,155 page report is being released today at the United Nations.
At the 9th Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, States Parties will consider Article 5 deadline extension requests submitted by 15 countries that will not be able to meet their 2009 deadline for mine clearance. The ICBL has prepared critiques to help States Parties prepare their questions, comments, and final decision on the extension requests. Click here to access the ICBL critiques.
Government representatives, landmine survivors, international agencies, mine action operators and civil society activists from over 100 countries will gather in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Ninth Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty from 24-28 November 2008.
The Cluster Munitions Convention's signing ceremony will take place in Oslo, Norway, from 2-3 December 2008. That is less than a month to ensure that countries – your country – will be ready to sign the treaty! To keep pressure on governments, sign the People's Treaty now.
The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) announced on 11 November 2008 the signing by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of an agreement developed by PCBL called "Rebel Group Declaration of Adherence to International Humanitarian Law on Landmines".
In the lead up to the Oslo Signing Conference which will be held in Oslo, Norway on 3 December 2008, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), held on 30 October a lunchtime briefing for Arabic 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 Oslo as a successful culmination of the “Oslo Process on Cluster Munitions”.
During its 2nd International Rendez-Vous, held in Geneva, Paris and Abu Dhabi from 8 to 15 October, the French film festival Cinéma Vérité called on its prestigious guests to support the Convention on Cluster Munitions by signing the People’s Treaty.