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:

  1. Stop clusters' use, production and trade until the associated humanitarian problems have been resolved;
  2. Increase resources to assist affected communities and individuals; and
  3. 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.

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,  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.

Stop Killer Robots has gown to be a global coalition of over 250 international, regional, and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in more than 70 countries that calls for a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons. 

Learn more about Stop Killer Robots at: www.stopkillerrobots.org.

 

 

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty. This landmark global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017.

ICAN began in Australia and was formally launched in Austria in April 2007 and was inspired by the work of the ICBL. ICAN is a coalition consisting of several hundred non-government organizations, from local peace groups to global federations representing millions of people.

ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize due to its “work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and its “ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

Learn more about ICAN at: www.icanw.org.

 

International Network on Explosive Weapons 

INEW is an international network of NGOs that calls for immediate action to prevent human suffering from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. INEW membership is based on endorsement of the following:

The International Network on Explosive Weapons calls for immediate action to prevent human suffering from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. States and other actors should:

  • Acknowledge that use of explosive weapons in populated areas tends to cause severe harm to individuals and communities and furthers suffering by damaging vital infrastructure;
  • Strive to avoid such harm and suffering in any situation, review and strengthen national policies and practices on use of explosive weapons and gather and make available relevant data;
  • Work for full realisation of the rights of victims and survivors;
  • Develop stronger international standards, including certain prohibitions and restrictions on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

In developing these standards, states and other actors should make a commitment that explosive weapons with wide area effects will not be used in populated areas.

Mines Action Canada was a co-founder of INEW. Learn more about INEW at: www.inew.org.