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For Immediate Release
April, 04 2011, 02:11pm EDT
Contact:
Amelie Chayer, ICBL Communications Officer (In Siem Reap, GMT+7)
Campaign Pushes for Progress on Landmine Treaty
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
States can only eradicate landmines and the suffering they cause by joining and completely respecting the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, said the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) today, at an event in Cambodia to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
"We have returned to the cradle of the mine ban movement to push for progress on the full universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty," explained Kasia Derlicka, ICBL Director. "Our common goal of a mine-free world is within reach, but we must all do more to get there."
Civil society, government and United Nations representatives are gathering in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 4 April to launch the road to the 11th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, which will take place in Phnom Penh in November 2011. Cambodia is an auspicious location for the meeting as it is heavily affected by landmines and has been central to the movement to establish the Mine Ban Treaty.
There are four key areas where the ICBL expects to see progress from states at the November 2011 meeting: 1. clearing mined areas, 2. assisting victims, 3. providing the necessary funding and resources, and 4. ensuring universal adherence to the Mine Ban Treaty.
"When governments meet in Phnom Penh this November, we do not want to hear rhetoric or platitudes, but rather what concrete actions they are taking to create a mine-free world," said Tun Channareth, ICBL Ambassador and a landmine survivor from Cambodia.
The ICBL and its sister campaign the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), together took the opportunity to call for global adherence to, and implementation of, the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The need for adherence to both treaties is especially great in South-East Asia, which has been so profoundly marked by the deadly legacy of landmines and cluster munitions.
"Cambodia should join the Convention on Cluster Munitions this year and be the first country in the region to be party to both treaties," said ICBL Youth Ambassador Song Kosal, who is a Cambodian landmine survivor. Cambodia is highly contaminated with cluster munitions, as are Laos and Vietnam.
Landmines and cluster munitions still affect the lives of people in around 70 countries across the globe. Clearing all affected areas, a requirement under both treaties, is a critical part of meeting their humanitarian goals. States Parties to both conventions need to improve efficiency in clearance, including by more precisely identifying affected areas. For example, Cambodia is currently conducting a new baseline survey to better understand the extent of its contamination.
Both conventions also require victim assistance to support landmine and cluster munition survivors' efforts to achieve social acceptance, gain meaningful employment and ensure their rights are respected. In addition to enduring physical pain, survivors report that they are faced with a lack of services and job opportunities, limited capacity-building programs and, most importantly, insufficient financial and technical resources for victim assistance.
With some 44,000 survivors, Cambodia is one of the states with the largest number of people who have suffered the traumas of landmines and cluster munitions. By fully implementing its National Plan of Action for Persons with Disabilities, which has faltered so far, Cambodia could ensure that survivors receive the support they need to lead dignified lives.
Meeting the challenges of landmines and cluster munitions also requires adequate and sustained support from both national and international sources. Donor states need to commit multi-year funding and to coordinate to ensure all affected states receive required assistance.
This year is key for both the landmine and cluster munition treaties. The 11th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty will take place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 28 November - 2 December 2011. The Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions will take place in Beirut, Lebanon, from 12-16 September 2011. During these meetings, government representatives will join non-governmental organizations, UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross to assess progress made in banning landmines and cluster munitions and in addressing consequences of past use.
The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty currently has 156 States Parties. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions has 108 signatories, of which 55 have already ratified. In addition to comprehensively banning landmines and cluster munitions, both treaties require states to clear all their contaminated areas, destroy their stockpiles of the weapons, and provide assistance to survivors, their families and communities.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is committed to an international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and sale, transfer, or export of antipersonnel landmines.
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'They Are Afraid of the People': Guatemala Tribunal Bars Leftist Presidential Ticket From Ballot
One election expert called the decision an "electoral coup."
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Guatemala's Supreme Electoral Tribunal ruled earlier this week that a leftist presidential ticket headed by Indigenous human rights defender Thelma Cabrera should be barred from the June ballot, prompting fury and vows of mass protests from Cabrera's supporters.
Thursday's ruling—which Cabrera's young political party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), is vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice—stems from Guatemala electoral authorities' refusal to certify the candidacy of Cabrera's running mate, former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas.
Reporting indicates that election officials have justified stonewalling Rodas—a longtime target of Guatemala's right-wing political establishment—by citing supposed "anomalies during the collection of compensation" upon his departure from the ombudsman post last year.
But Cabrera and Rodas contend that the electoral tribunal's decision is a politically motivated attempt to keep a left-wing party—whose base is largely rural—off the ballot, which is set to include the daughter of Gen. EfraÃn RÃos Montt, the former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013.
Montt's victims were largely Indigenous peasants.
Last month, the same electoral body that deemed Cabrera and Rodas disqualified from the June ballot ruled that Zury RÃos can participate, despite a constitutional provision barring the relatives of coup leaders from serving as Guatemala's president. RÃos was blocked from the 2019 presidential ballot on those grounds.
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Cabrera's supporters have vowed to "paralyze the country" with large-scale demonstrations if the electoral body's decision isn't reversed.
"If they do not do it, we are going to take over the international airport, the three ports of the country, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and all state institutions," said one MLP supporter. "We are Indigenous, we are Maya, and we can be out here for a month!"
\u201c#EUElecciones2023 Manifestantes amenazan con tomar el Aeropuerto Internacional La Aurora, los tres puertos del pa\u00eds y el TSE si no se inscribe al binomio presidencial del MLP | V\u00eda @noel_solis \n\n\ud83d\uddf3\ufe0f\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\uddf9 #Elecciones2023 #EleccionesGT #GUATEVOTA2023\u201d— Emisoras Unidas (@Emisoras Unidas) 1675357690
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On Thursday, members of the DNC Resolutions Committee—who likely faced pressure from DNC leadership—stayed quiet when the proposed ban was put up for consideration, so the measure did not receive a vote. Had the committee approved the proposal, which was backed by dozens of DNC members, it would have gone to the full DNC for a vote this weekend. (The DNC doesn't publicize membership lists for its standing committees.)
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Democratic leaders, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly railed against the scourge of dark money, decried its corrupting influence, and pledged to rein it in—only to balk at pressure for substantive action.
The party's platform, adopted in 2020, states that "we will bring an end to 'dark money' by requiring full disclosure of contributors to any group that advocates for or against candidates."
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Last year, the newly formed dark money group Opportunity for All Action Fund spent around $600,000 to bolster Reps. Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), and Danny Davis (D–Ill.).
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According to an August 2022 study by the Wesleyan Media Project, nearly 70% of pro-Democratic Senate ads up to that point in last year's election cycle were funded by groups that don't disclose any of their donors.
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At this weekend's DNC meeting in Philadelphia, members are expected to approve a presidential primary calendar that would bump South Carolina up to the first-in-the-nation primary slot—a plan that has drawn criticism from some progressives.
But the issue of dark money is likely to be brushed aside once again.
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Larry Cohen, a DNC member and the board chair of Our Revolution, wrote in an email Friday that the DNC and state-level Democratic parties "have extensive rules relating to the nominating process, which provide many opportunities to block dark and dirty money."
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"We are basically making demands that we have a livable wage, that we are able to live our lives outdoors, like REI's mission statement includes," said one sales associate at the Beachwood store.
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After REI employees in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio walked off the job Friday morning, the recreational equipment retailer agreed to schedule a union election vote next month and stopped pushing to exclude certain workers.
Following successful union drives at two other REI stores, employees in Beachwood last month filed for a union election with National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
John Ginter, a sales associate at the Beachwood REI, told Cleveland-based Ideastream Public Media that he and his co-workers are seeking better working conditions.
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According to the report: "Ginter alleged REI has some 'pretty rigid stipulations' with regard to which employees are eligible for benefits and accrual of sick time. He also said he believes his REI location is 'not living up to our diversity, equity, and inclusion statement.'"
Beachwood workers launched their brief unfair labor practice (ULP) strike Friday as an NLRB hearing got underway at the federal agency's Cleveland office.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8Alert: our store is closed due to our ULP strike. Stand in solidarity with us @rei co-op members and ask the company to #letREIvote https://t.co/HytMzwzBAI\u201d— REI Union Cleveland (@REI Union Cleveland) 1675439795
In a ULP charge that RWDSU filed Thursday with the NLRB, the union claimed REI "engaged in the unlawful surveillance of workers and/or created an impression of surveillance of the workers at the Beachwood store."
RWDSU has also accused REI of putting forth "meritless assertions to delay the election" by claiming that sales leads, bike shop workers, and "casual" employees—or those who work part-time with irregular schedules—should not vote.
"RWDSU vehemently disagrees with REI's objections," the union said in a statement. "It is especially galling because, as the company unnecessarily fights RWDSU in Ohio, it is currently bargaining contracts with workers holding these same classifications at the SoHo, New York and Berkeley, California stores. REI's hypocrisy is union-busting plain and simple and is a meek attempt to exclude more than half of the proposed bargaining unit to be eligible to vote."
\u201cIn a petty move by local management we're locked out for the day. The main office says we can come back tomorrow, but enjoy this video of the type of attitude we have to put up with every day from local management ...\u201d— REI Union Cleveland (@REI Union Cleveland) 1675457892
REI pushed back against RWDSU's characterization of its intentions in a Thursday statement to Axios, saying that the NLRB hearing was "to ensure that all employees who hold the right to vote are included in the voting process."
The agreement reached Friday includes all eligible workers at the location, "a reversal from REI's position last week," according to RWDSU. "The union election will take place on March 3, 2023 from 12:00 pm-6:00 pm ET at the Ohio store."
New York Times labor reporter Noam Scheiber tweeted Friday evening: "One thing I've learned covering labor over the past several years: Your labor rights are typically as robust as the power you and your co-workers can muster at the workplace. This case was a perfect example."
More Perfect Union similarly said, "Strikes work."
\u201cCleveland REI workers went on strike this morning, and just hours later the company agreed to all of their demands. Strikes work.\u201d— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union) 1675450448
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Shontel Brown, Ohio Democrats who are not related, expressed solidarity with the REI workers in their state this week.
Others, from the REI union in SoHo to UNI Commerce to the AFL-CIO, have also publicly supported the Beachwood workers this week.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\u2757\ufe0fHey @REI: You might want to update your website. \n\nThere is NOTHING respectable about a workplace environment where employees are harassed, intimidated & prevented from exercising their LEGAL RIGHT to vote in a fair union election. \n\nSolidarity with @reiunioncle! #letREIvote\u201d— AFL-CIO (@AFL-CIO) 1675441800
If the Ohio employees vote to form REI's third union nationwide, RWDSU would represent approximately 55 workers there—though RWDSU noted that "the store currently operates at a 60% staffing level of its full capacity, potentially increasing that number to over 70."
As the Beachwood workers prepare for next month's election, contract negotiations are underway in Berkeley, and 10 fired employees—including two bargaining team members—are accusing REI of retaliation, which the company denies.
Meanwhile, in Washington state on Tuesday, REI laid off 167 people, or 8% of headquarters workers. President and CEO Eric Artz said that "in the face of increasing uncertainty, we need to sharpen our focus on the most critical investments and areas of work to best serve our members and grow the co-op over the long term."
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