US: Nobel Laureates Urge Obama to Ban Landmines

Fifteen Nobel Peace Prize recipients have sent a letter
to President Barack Obama urging him to ban antipersonnel landmines,
Human Rights Watch said today. The letter was sent on November 30, 2010,
as the Obama administration's formal review of US landmine policy
entered its second year.

The letter was signed by: Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams (1976),
Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Elie
Wiesel (1986), Oscar Arias Sanchez (1987), His Holiness Dalai Lama
(1989), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992), F.W. De Klerk (1993), Jose
Ramos-Horta (1996), Jody Williams (1997), John Hume (1998), Shirin Ebadi
(2003), Wangari Maathai (2004), and Mohamed El Baradei (2005).

Jody Williams, an American, was awarded the prize along with the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) largely for their role in
bringing about the Mine Ban Treaty.

"As a Nobel Peace Laureate himself, President Obama should exercise the
moral weight that the prize carries and heed his fellow laureates' call
to ban landmines," said Steve Goose, Arms Division director at Human
Rights Watch and chair of the ICBL. "This letter is a powerful sign of
support for the US to join the Mine Ban treaty."

On December 1, 2009, a State Department official confirmed that
President Obama had initiated a comprehensive review of US landmine
policy. The Nobel letter expresses hope that the landmine review, still
under way, "will be guided by the humanitarian concerns that have
already led 156 nations to ban the weapon, including nearly all U.S.
military allies."

The letter says:

United States accession to this important instrument
would bring great benefits to the U.S. and the world. It would
strengthen U.S. national security, international security, and
international humanitarian law. It would help strengthen the fundamental
goal of preventing innumerable civilians from falling victim to these
indiscriminate weapons in the future, and help ensure adequate care for
the hundreds of thousands of existing survivors and their communities.
U.S. membership would help spur to action the 39 states that remain
outside the treaty.

The United States is participating as an observer in the Tenth Meeting
of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva, Switzerland, which
began on November 29. The Mine Ban Treaty comprehensively bans
antipersonnel mines, requires destruction of stockpiled mines within
four years, and urges extensive programs to assist the victims of
landmines.

Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the ICBL. Human Rights Watch
also serves on the steering committee of the United States Campaign to
Ban Landmines.

Several Nobel Peace laureates have long expressed concern at the
humanitarian impact of antipersonnel mines and have worked for their
eradication:

• The nongovernmental organization founded by Adolfo Perez Esquivel
  (1980), Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ), has worked to ensure that the
  Mine Ban Treaty is ratified and implemented throughout Latin America.

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984) publicly endorsed the call for a ban
  on antipersonnel mines in March 1995, when he was president of the All
  Africa Conference of Churches. Tutu opened a regional conference on
  landmines in South Africa in May 1997 that proved instrumental in
  building African-wide support for creating a strong treaty to ban
  antipersonnel mines.

• His Holiness Dalai Lama (1989) endorsed the call for a total ban on
  landmines in 1995 at the urging of the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian
  Buddhism, Maha Ghosananda, and Cambodian landmine survivors.

• Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992), Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire
  (1976), and the three other founders (Williams, Ebadi, and Maathai) of
  the Nobel Women's Initiative, established in 2004, have actively
  supported the ICBL. Activities have included statements to annual
  meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty, media work, and outreach to governments
  that have not yet joined.

• Jose Ramos-Horta (1996) spoke out against landmines and other
  weapons designed to inflict pain and death in his Nobel Peace Prize
  acceptance speech. When he became the Timor-Leste's first foreign
  affairs minister, the government acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, making
  it the first disarmament treaty that the new country joined after
  independence.

• Jody Williams (1997) was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
  recognition of her leadership role as founding coordinator of the ICBL.
  Williams spearheaded the civil society-based campaign that cooperated
  with a group of small and medium-sized countries through the "Ottawa
  Process" to create the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

• Shirin Ebadi (2003) opened the "Mine Clearing Collaboration
  Campaign" in 2004 to demand that Iran take greater action to clear mines
  laid during the Iran-Iraq war, assist mine victims, and join the Mine
  Ban Treaty.

• Wangari Maathai (2004) participated in several events at the First
  Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, in Nairobi, Kenya in November
  and December 2004.