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 indiscriminate weapons. 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 60 countries, who work locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally to support the ban on antipersonnel landmines.
Mines Action Canada sits on the Governance Board of the ICBL-CMC. Learn more about the ICBL at: www.icbl.org.
Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)
The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is a global network of over 250 civil society organizations working in 70 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.
The CMC has successfully campaigned for a strong international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions with calls to:
- Stop clusters' use, production and trade until the associated humanitarian problems have been resolved;
- Increase resources to assist affected communities and individuals; and
- Users of clusters and other weapons that become ERW accept responsibility for clearance, risk education, warnings, information and victim assistance.
Mines Action Canada sits on the Governance Board of the ICBL-CMC. Learn more about the CMC at: www.stopclustermunitions.org.
Campaign to Stop Killer Robots
Formed by 10 non-governmental organizations at a meeting in New York on 19 October 2012 and launched in London in April 2013, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is an international coalition working to preemptively ban fully autonomous weapons. These robotic weapons would be able to choose and fire
on targets on their own, without any human intervention. See the Chronology charting the Campaign's major actions and achievements to date.
The Campaign has gown to be a global coalition of 61 international, regional, and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 26 countries that calls for a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons.
Learn more about the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots at: www.stopkillerrobots.org.