For Immediate Release
October 9, 2009

Newly Awarded Nobel Laureate President Barack Obama Must Join Global Ban to End Landmines and Cluster Bombs

The Nobel Committee sent a strong signal today by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, President of the United States, for his commitment to disarmament and the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The United States Campaign to Ban Landmines & Cluster Bombs (USCBL)—an affiliate of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize—calls on President Obama to strengthen conventional arms control by signing the two treaties banning landmines and cluster munitions.

The USCBL calls upon the new Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama, to bring the United States toward joining the vast majority of the world’s nations that have already banned landmines and cluster bombs. By choosing to recognize the new United States diplomacy initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama, the Nobel Committee has placed the issue of disarmament at the center of international attention. This decision is a call on government to move forward and join the world community in its effort to protect civilians during and after conflict.

While the U.S. was one of the first states to call for the eventual elimination of landmines in the mid-1990s, the U.S. did not sign the treaty when it opened for signature in 1997; instead President Clinton set 2006 as the goal for the U.S. to join the treaty. However, in 2004, President Bush reversed this decision.

Furthermore, despite the progress indicated by a U.S. export moratorium on cluster munitions, currently no plans have been announced to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which opened for signature in Oslo in December 2008. This new treaty, signed by 100 countries, bans cluster munitions due to their indiscriminate impact on civilians and their high failure rates of unexploded duds, which pose a humanitarian threat similar to that of landmines.

“The successes of the Mine Ban Treaty are obvious,” said Zach Hudson, coordinator of the USCBL. “Since the treaty entered into force in 1999, new landmine use has been drastically curbed. As a result, annual landmine casualty rates are now less than half what they were in the mid-1990s. While this number may be conservative because it includes only documented casualties, last year there were only 6,000 new reported casualties, and this rate is still dropping.”

“Yet the U.S. is not among the three quarters of the world’s nations—including most of the U.S.’s closest military allies—that have signed the treaty,” Hudson continued. “It is time for the U.S. to finally fulfill the promise it made to the international community almost 13 years ago. Joining both the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions would enable the U.S. to show a renewed commitment to supporting humanitarian action, civil society, post-conflict peace and the development of international law.”

The Second Mine Ban Treaty Review Conference, scheduled to take place in Cartagena, Colombia, November 30 to December 4, is an ideal forum to announce a change of U.S. position on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions since it will occur a few days before the official presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10. Attendance at the conference and a policy change announcement would reinforce international hope surrounding Nobel Laureate Barack Obama’s disarmament policy.

Contacts:

Lea Radick, Communications Officer, HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL,
Phone: +1 (301) 891-2138
E-mail: lradick@handicap-international.us

Zach Hudson, Coordinator, USCBL,
Phone: +1 (917) 860-1883,
E-mail: zhudson@handicap-international.us

The USCBL, currently coordinated by Handicap International, is a coalition of thousands of organizations and people working to: (1) ban further U.S. use, production and export of anti-personnel landmines and cluster bombs; (2) encourage the U.S. to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions; and (3) secure high levels of U.S. government support for demining and assistance programs for victims of landmines, cluster bombs and other unexploded remnants of war. The USCBL is one of 90 country campaigns that constitute the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)—co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

The USCBL is also part of the global Cluster Munition Coalition, an international coalition working to protect civilians from the effects of cluster munitions by promoting universal adherence to and full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.