Volume 1, Number 6

Last week, 68 Senators delivered a letter applauding President Obama for his decision to conduct a comprehensive review of U.S. landmine policy. That review, drawing in members of the Defense and State Departments and the National Security Council, is ongoing and will provide the president with advice on whether the United States should change policy and accede to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty.

Experts from the Arms Control Association join leaders of 65 national organizations in urging President Barack Obama to accede to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Mine Ban treaty.

The United Nations received the 30th instrument of ratification for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, setting the treaty to enter into force August 1. Thus far the United States has not supported the accord, but arms experts at the Arms Control Association urged the Obama administration to reconsider its policy on the weapons and move toward joining the treaty.

For the first time since the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force in 1999, the United States officially participated in a meeting of states-parties, joining more than 120 other countries in Colombia Nov. 30-Dec. 4 at the treaty’s second five-year review conference.

At the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, the United States reiterated its recent decision to conduct a review of its policies on landmines. Also at the meeting, the treaty’s member states agreed to a detailed action plan and granted deadline extensions to four states for landmine clearance.