At Mines Action Canada, we believe that Ordinary People having an Extraordinary Impact is the key to building a safer and more peaceful world for us all. We work to end the suffering caused by indiscriminate and inhumane weapons such as landmines, cluster munitions, autonomous weapons, explosive weapons in populated areas and nuclear weapons with colleagues from around the world.
Humanitarian Disarmament
Mines Action Canada is Canada's leading humanitarian disarmament organization. Humanitarian disarmament seeks to prevent and remediate arms-inflicted human suffering and environmental harm through the establishment and implementation of laws and norms. This approach to disarmament puts people at the centre of policy and practice. Humanitarian Disarmament is an umbrella term for a collection of disarmament initiatives driven by humanitarian imperatives to strengthen international law as well as protect civilians. By advancing disarmament from a humanitarian perspective, governments and civil society work together to prevent further civilian casualties, avoid socio-economic devastation, and protect and ensure the rights and livelihoods of victims. The main purpose of humanitarian disarmament is the prevention of needless suffering and injury through the regulation and restriction of weapons that pose significant risks for civilian populations both during and after conflict.
Humanitarian disarmament initiatives have included the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We know it works!
Humanitarian disarmament allows all of us to have a say in global peace and security. No one needs to be an expert on security theory to understand that weapons which are indiscriminate and inhumane should not be used. Communities affected by these weapons are the experts but everyone can speak up. Together, we can make change.