For Immediate Release
November 25, 2009

Humanitarian Coalition Slams Obama Administration’s Decision to Stay Outside Mine Ban Treaty

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. State Department spokesperson announced Tuesday that the Obama administration has completed an interagency review of its landmine policy and concluded that the U.S. will maintain the Bush administration’s decision to not join the Mine Ban Treaty. The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL)—the U.S. affiliate of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize—condemns this shocking decision and calls on the Obama administration to clarify its position to the world community.

“While we were told to expect a landmine policy review—which our coalition had requested along with Senator Patrick Leahy and others, we were taken by surprise that the review has already been concluded behind closed doors without the consultation of non-governmental aid workers, legislators, and important U.S. NATO allies who are all States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty,” said Zach Hudson, USCBL Coordinator.

“We also have been offered no official reasons as to why the U.S. would continue on this present course—other than that nothing has changed since Bush reviewed the policy in 2004. We aren’t hearing anything new. Recent discussion with administration officials yield only the same arguments that were offered when Clinton deferred joining in 1997—arguments which are just not relevant. President Obama should explain these actions to the international community which held such high hopes for a different kind of U.S. engagement.”

The United States is currently one of only 39 countries that have not yet joined the treaty. In the Western Hemisphere, only the U.S and Cuba are non-signatories. Every other member of NATO except Poland (which has already signed and will ratify in 2012) are also States Parties to the treaty. While being one of the first governments 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 United States to join. President Bush reversed this decision in 2004.

Some U.S. officials have cited the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq as reasons for not joining the treaty. However, both of these countries are States Parties to the treaty, and as parties have not only banned antipersonnel landmines, but are also prohibited from assisting the United States in any way with use of landmines. The Obama administration’s decision is even more baffling given that the U.S. is already in de facto compliance with most of the treaty’s provisions. Despite not being a signatory, the U.S. has not used antipersonnel mines since 1991, has not exported them since 1992 and has not produced them since 1997.

“The U.S.’s closest military allies have recognized that the human costs of these weapons far outweigh their utility,” Hudson said. “Landmines injure and kill thousands of innocent civilians every single year and well after conflicts have ended. It is hard to understand why the Obama administration, while touting multilateralism and disarmament, is at the same time insisting on retaining the right to use these barbaric and antiquated weapons, particularly when U.S. troops have not used them in more than 18 years.”

The refusal to sign the Mine Ban Treaty is especially dismaying given Obama’s recent selection as the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Joining the Mine Ban Treaty would have confirmed and showed concrete evidence that the Obama Administration is serious about renewed emphasis on multilateralism and disarmament. Instead, the Administration’s decision showed a unilateral approach that legitimizes a weapon the rest of the world has banned on humanitarian grounds.

“The review shows a compete lack of transparency, and the outcome puts the U.S. once again on the wrong side of history and humanity,” said Steve Goose, the director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch and ICBL spokesperson. “It is a decision lacking in vision, lacking in compassion, and lacking in basic common sense. The refusal to join the Mine Ban Treaty is completely at odds with the Obama administration’s professed emphasis on multilateralism, disarmament and humanitarian affairs.”

The U.S. announcement was made days before the opening of the historic “Cartagena Summit on a Mine Free World,” the Second Mine Ban Treaty Review Conference, scheduled to take place November 29–December 4. More than 1,000 people and 120 governments will participate in this fiveyear review conference, including dozens of foreign ministers and defense ministers. The U.S. will attend the conference as an observer.

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 people and U.S. non-governmental organizations working to: (1) ensure no U.S. use, production, transfer and export of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions; (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 munitions and other unexploded remnants of war.

The USCBL is the U.S. affiliate of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)—the co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize—and is a member of the 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.