International Campaign to Ban Landmines

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working for a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.

The coalition was formed in 1992 when six groups with similar interests, including Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Handicap International, Physicians for Human Rights, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and the Mines Advisory Group, agreed to cooperate on their common goal. The campaign has since grown and spread to become a network with active members in some 100 countries – including groups working on women, children, veterans, religious groups, the environment, human rights, arms control, peace and development—working locally, nationally and internationally to eradicate antipersonnel landmines. A prominent supporter was Diana, Princess of Wales.

The organization and its founding coordinator, Jody Williams, jointly received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty). The signature of this treaty (which bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel mines) is seen as the campaign's greatest success.

The ICBL monitors the global mine and cluster munition situation (through Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, its research and monitoring arm), and conducts advocacy activities, lobbying for implementation and universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty, humanitarian mine action programs geared toward the needs of mine-affected communities, support for landmine survivors, their families and their communities, and a stop to the production, use and transfer of landmines, including by non-State armed groups. The ICBL participates in the periodical meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty process, urges states not parties to the treaty to join and non-state armed groups to respect the mine ban norm, condemns mine use and promotes public awareness and debate on the mine issue, organizing events and generating media attention.

Organizational structure

In 2011, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) merged into one unified structure, now known as the ICBL-CMC, in order to realize operational efficiencies and reinforce complementary work. The ICBL and the CMC campaigns remain separate and continue to remind governments of their commitments to implement and promote both treaties. Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor continues its unique civil society monitoring program on the humanitarian and developmental consequences of landmines, cluster munitions, and explosive remnants of war.

The activities of the ICBL-CMC are supported by a Governance Board representative of various elements of the ICBL that provides strategic, financial and human resources oversight. An Advisory Committee provides more regular input to staff and the working of the campaign. Four ambassadors serve as campaign representatives at speaking events and other conferences worldwide. They include Jody Williams, Tun Channareth (Cambodian landmine survivor), Song Kosal (Cambodian landmine survivor), and Margaret Arech Orech (Ugandan landmine survivor and founder of Ugandan Landmine Survivors Association). Currently, the ICBL has 14 staff members based in Geneva (the central office), Lyon, Paris, and Ottawa. Additionally, the ICBL-CMC hosts several interns each year.

Mine Ban Treaty

Main article: Ottawa Treaty

The Mine Ban Treaty, or the Ottawa Treaty, is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. Officially entitled The Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction, the treaty is sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Convention. As of January 2013, there were 161 States Parties to the Ottawa Treaty.

Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor

Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor is the ICBL-CMC's research and monitoring arm. It is the de facto monitoring regime for the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It monitors and reports on States Parties' implementation of and compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and more generally, it assesses the problems caused by landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). The Monitor represents the first time that NGOs have come together in a coordinated, systematic, and sustained way to monitor humanitarian law or disarmament treaties, and to regularly document progress and problems, thereby successfully putting into practice the concept of civil society-based verification. Since its creation in 1998, Monitor research has been carried out by a global network of primarily in-country researchers, most of them ICBL-CMC campaigners, and all content undergoes rigorous editing by the Monitor's Editorial Team prior to publication.

See also

• Mines Advisory Group
• Geneva Call, an NGO inspired by the ICBL that focuses on non-state actors
• Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty)
• Swiss Foundation for Mine Action
• Mine clearance agencies
• Demining
• Land mine
• Anti-personnel mine
• Aki Ra Active in removing mines.
• Ban Advocates Voice from communities affected by cluster munitions
• Manitoba Campaign to Ban Landmines
• International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons
• List of anti-war organizations
• List of peace activists

External links

• International Campaign to Ban Landmines (official website)
• Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor
• Mines Advisory Group
• Ken Rutherford, Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines, (March, 2011)