{"id":1092,"date":"2014-05-18T11:35:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T15:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2014-06-12T10:04:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T14:04:34","slug":"third-review-conference-of-the-mine-ban-treaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/?p=1092","title":{"rendered":"Third Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1099\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/image.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"291\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 19.5px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1069\" alt=\"PSALM says...time for USA to commit to MBT\" src=\"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/PSALM-says...time-for-USA-to-commit-to-MBT-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/PSALM-says...time-for-USA-to-commit-to-MBT-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/PSALM-says...time-for-USA-to-commit-to-MBT-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Mine Ban<\/p>\n<p>Treaty\u2019s Third Review Conference (3RC), will take place from 23 to 27 June in 2014 in Maputo, Mozambique. It will mark a critical moment in the Treaty\u2019s history, taking place 15 years after the Treaty\u2019s entry into force and the First Meeting of States Parties in 1999, which was also held in Maputo. The Review Conference will assess the progress made to date and provide a roadmap for the work ahead.\u00a0Inspired by Mozambique\u2019s example of how a heavily mine-affected country has effectively tackled its landmine contamination and is expected to complete its mine clearance in 2014, the ICBL sees completion as the most appropriate theme for the period in the lead-up to, during, and beyond the Review Conference. The WEST VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANDMINES is calling on the Obama Administration to bring the United States on board the Mine Ban Treaty. This review is a perfect opportunity for the U.S. to join the treaty.<\/p>\n<p>MINE BAN TREATY VIDEO:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mine Ban Treaty Video\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eaYp4vXMUWM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Completion Challenge: Commit to Complete!<br \/>\nThe ICBL\/WVCBL is calling on the mine ban community to take up the Completion Challenge \u2013 to ensure that the work started several years ago is actually completed as soon as possible, and no later than 10 years after the Third Review Conference. We strongly believe that with renewed determination, sufficient resources and the use of good practices, all current States Parties can complete their major Mine Ban Treaty obligations within 10 years of the Third Review Conference.<br \/>\nThe Third Review Conference in Maputo should therefore be seen as the starting point of a Countdown to Completion of the Mine Ban Treaty\u2019s primary obligations and should be accompanied by a genuine re-commitment of efforts and resources by the international community in order to meet this challenge. By the end of the 10-year Countdown to Completion we expect to also celebrate having no new landmine victims in States Parties.<br \/>\nWe are therefore throwing this Completion Challenge at all states &#8211; to come to Maputo with a clear commitment to complete their remaining specific treaty obligations (such as clearance, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, or joining the treaty) within a clearly defined, ambitious deadline, and to make a public commitment at the Maputo Conference to meet this goal.<\/p>\n<p>Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy<br \/>\nTime To Change our Policy on Anti-Personnel Landmines<br \/>\nSenate Floor<br \/>\nMarch 27, 2014<\/p>\n<p>Mr. LEAHY. \u00a0Mr. President, over the past 20 years I have spoken many times about the toll inflicted on innocent civilians and U.S. soldiers from anti-personnel landmines.<\/p>\n<p>Like booby traps, they are inherently indiscriminate, triggered by whoever comes into contact with them. \u00a0161 nations, including most of our allies and friends, have signed a treaty banning them. \u00a0The United States is conspicuously not among them.<\/p>\n<p>In 1994 \u2013 twenty years ago \u2013 in a speech to the UN General Assembly, President Bill Clinton called for the elimination of anti-personnel landmines.<\/p>\n<p>Two years later, in 1996, President Clinton said this: \u00a0\u201cToday I am launching an international effort to ban anti-personnel land mines.\u201d \u00a0He went on to announce a U.S. plan to develop alternatives to landmines, with the goal that the United States would end its use of anti-personnel mines by 2006.<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, the United States missed an opportunity to be a leader in the international effort to ban anti-personnel mines by refusing to sign the Mine Ban Treaty.<\/p>\n<p>2006 came and went. \u00a0President Clinton\u2019s administration ended. \u00a0After eight years of President George W. Bush, President Obama was elected and then reelected. \u00a0In the meantime, U.S. troops fought two long ground wars without using anti-personnel landmines.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, I and 67 other United States Senators \u2013 Democrats and Republicans \u2013 sent a letter to President Obama. \u00a0We commended him for agreeing to review the U.S. Government\u2019s policy on anti-personnel mines, and we urged him to conform U.S. policy to the Mine Ban Treaty as a first step.<\/p>\n<p>Almost five years since the start of that review, we are still waiting for the results.<\/p>\n<p>After 20 years and three U.S. presidents, there is no evidence the United States is any closer to joining the treaty than when President Clinton made that speech. \u00a0It is very disheartening.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon has long argued that it needs landmines to defend South Korea. \u00a0In 1996, then Secretary of Defense William Perry said the Pentagon would, quote, \u201cmove vigorously\u201d to achieve alternative ways to prevent a North Korean attack so they would no longer need landmines.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, after 20 years, there is no evidence they have done anything to revise their Korea war plans without anti-personnel mines, or that any President has ever told them to.<\/p>\n<p>Some have asked what difference it would make if the U.S. joins the Mine Ban Treaty. \u00a0We have not used anti-personnel mines for 23 years and we do far more to support humanitarian demining than any other country.<\/p>\n<p>We have not exported anti-personnel mines since my amendment became law in 1992. \u00a0We have spent many tens of millions of dollars through the Leahy War Victim\u2019s Fund to aid those injured by mines.<\/p>\n<p>If we are not causing the problem, why bother?<\/p>\n<p>Because anti-personnel landmines continue to kill and cripple innocent people.<br \/>\nBecause indiscriminate, victim-activated weapons have no place in the arsenal of a civilized country.<br \/>\nBecause there is a treaty banning these weapons that countries as diverse as Afghanistan to Great Britain have signed.<br \/>\nAnd because the United States has by far the most powerful military in the world and this treaty needs the United States.<br \/>\nAs President Obama said in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize: \u00a0\u201cI am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates and weakens those who don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twenty years after President Clinton\u2019s UN speech, President Obama can give real meaning to those words by putting the United States on a path to join the treaty.<\/p>\n<p>That means destroying what remains of our stockpile of mines. \u00a0It means revising our Korea war plans to get rid of anti-personnel mines.<\/p>\n<p>President Obama is the only one who can make that happen, and time is running out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mine Ban Treaty\u2019s Third Review Conference (3RC), will take place from 23 to 27 June in 2014 in Maputo, Mozambique. It will mark a critical moment in the Treaty\u2019s history, taking place 15 years after the Treaty\u2019s entry into force and the First Meeting of States Parties in 1999, which was also held in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1106,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wvcbl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}