| Details |
March 23, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
Re: Request for Canadian financial institutions and pension funds to ban investments in cluster bombs
On behalf of the membership and supporters of Mines Action Canada, Canada’s campaign to ban landmines and cluster bombs, we are writing today to urge your institution to publicly and proactively establish a policy that bans all investments in companies that produce cluster bombs or their components as soon as possible.
A cluster bomb is a weapon that can contain up to several hundred small explosive submunitions. Dropped from the air or fired from the ground, cluster bombs break open in mid-air and scatter these submunitions randomly over a wide area. Anyone within the strike zone is likely to be torn apart. Many submunitions also fail to explode as intended, leaving behind huge quantities of de facto landmines which continue to kill and injure for years, even decades after use. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and injured by these weapons.
In response to the humanitarian impact these indiscriminate weapons have, cluster bombs have been banned under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions which has been already signed by the majority of the world’s governments, including Canada. The treaty bans the use, production, trade and transfer of cluster bombs. It also was a provision in the treaty that prohibits any member country from providing any assistance towards any activity included in the ban. The treaty will become international law as of August 1st, 2010.
Mines Action Canada believes investing in cluster bomb producers constitutes assistance to the production of cluster bombs and, therefore, would make any participating Canadian financial institution or pension fund complicit in the production of these indiscriminate weapons.
In February 2010, Mines Action Canada published a review of current Canadian financial institution policies. To view the report, please go to http://www.minesactioncanada.org.previewdns.com/documents/campaigns/When_your_investment_bombs-english.pdf.
We urge those institutions that have been implicated in investing in companies that produce cluster bombs to end your company’s involvement as soon as possible. Moreover, we ask all Canadian financial institutions and pension funds to implement a transparent and comprehensive policy to ensure that your company will prohibit any future involvement in this type of business.
An increasing number of financial institutions and funds around the world – including Canadian ones - have begun to disinvest from cluster bomb producers and have begun to implement a transparent and comprehensive policy regarding their involvement with companies that produce cluster bombs. These financial institutions do not consider cluster munitions producers to be appropriate business partners, and have shown true leadership in beginning to tackle this issue internally within their institutions. This global trend can be viewed in the report, Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions: A Shared Responsibility, by IKV Pax Christi and Netwerk Vlaanderen, released in October 2009. A full copy of this report can also be found here: http://www.stopexplosiveinvestments.org/report.
Mines Action Canada is committed to ensuring that a ban on investing in companies that produce cluster bombs becomes reality. With your help and leadership, collectively, we can make this happen. We are available to answer any questions you may have about this request and to connect you with experts or institutions that have or are in the process of disinvesting. We welcome any and all comments or corrections to the information that has been in published in the Canadian and global reports at
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.
We hope that your company will be the next financial institution or fund to ban any involvement in cluster munitions by implementing a comprehensive policy. We look forward to adding your institution’s name to the global campaign’s Hall of Fame, which recognizes pioneers in disinvestment from cluster bombs and the best practices of financial institutions around the world.
Yours sincerely,
Anna Miller
Chair
Board of Directors
Mines Action Canada
and
Paul Hannon
Executive Director
Mines Action Canada |
