International Partners

With your support, Mines Action Canada and our international partners are taking steps today, so that civilian populations may walk freely tomorrow.  Our international partners, a network of non-governmental organizations, are dedicated to the safety and security of civilian populations affected by land mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Together, this issue is solvable in our lifetime.

International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)

In 1991, several non-governmental organizations and individuals began simultaneously to discuss the necessity of coordinating initiatives and calls for a ban on antipersonnel landmines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines’ (ICBL's) founding organizations: Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, medico international, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation came together in October 1992 to formalize the ICBL.

“The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims. It is the perfect soldier.”  Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner, founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

The Campaign calls for an international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines, and for increased international resources for humanitarian mine clearance and mine victim assistance program. The network represents over 1,100 human rights, demining, humanitarian, children's, veterans', medical, development, arms control, religious, environmental, and women's groups in over 90 countries, who work locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally to ban antipersonnel landmines.

The ICBL calls for a total ban on the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines; accelerated clearance and destruction of all emplaced landmines and explosive remnants of war; fulfilment of the rights and needs of all landmine victims; and universal adherence to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and its full implementation by all.

Click here for more information about the ICBL.

Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is a global network of over 300 civil society organizations working in 100 countries to end the harm caused by cluster bombs.

In 2003, MAC helped to found the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) along with 80 non-governmental organizations from around the world. It was a response to growing concerns about ERW and cluster munitions' use in civilian areas and their impact. Other founding members include Human Rights Watch, Handicap International and other leaders from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines which secured the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. MAC continues to serve on the Cluster Munition Coalition Steering Committee.

The CMC calls for a total ban on the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions; accelerated clearance and destruction of all unexploded cluster munitions, their submunitions, and other explosive remnants of war; fulfilment of the rights and needs of all cluster munition victims; and universal adherence to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions and its full implementation by all.

Learn more about the Cluster Munition Coalition by clicking here.

From January 2011, the Cluster Munition Coalition and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines have been operating under one legal structure with a single Governance Board providing strategic, financial and human resources oversight to both campaigns. An Administrative Committee will provide more regular input to staff and the working of the campaigns. MAC is a member of both of those bodies.