There is no weapon in the world like nuclear weapons. In just one instant, a single weapon can destroy an entire city, or even a nation. They have no ability to differentiate between civilians and combatants. According to the Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, it would take just 50 of today’s nuclear weapons to kill 200 million people.

The impacts of nuclear weapons are far-reaching – they can devastate cities, health, water catchments and the food chain. They are the ultimate weapons of terror. What’s more, nuclear weapons detract financial and technical resources from today’s real security threats; climate change, depletion of water and environmental degradation, poverty, hunger, pandemics such as AIDS and failing states.

In 1997, after years of international civil society mobilization and government lobbying, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), led by Jody Williams, achieved its goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

For their work to rid the world of landmines, the ICBL and Jody Williams were awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

Thanks to the efforts of ICBL, partner organizations and willing governments, at least 38 nations have stopped producing landmines and global trade has almost halted.

Since 1997, when the Mine Ban Treaty was first signed in by 122 governments, almost 42 million anti-personnel mines have been destroyed. Today, the Mine Ban Treaty has 156 states parties.

Unfortunately, there is still work to be done. Vast stockpiles of landmines remain in warehouses around the world, and minefields dating back decades are still littered with the lethal weapons. According to the ICBL's Landmine Monitor Report of 2008, 13 countries continue to produce antipersonnel landmines and 44 countries still have an estimated 176 million mines stockpiled.

About 80 percent of anti-personnel mines' casualties are civilians. It is estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 new casualties caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance each year. This equals roughly more than 40 new casualties a day, or at least two new casualties every hour.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines won't declare success until every mine has been destroyed and mine survivors have the resources they need to carry out their lives with dignity.

(Above: The signing of the Mine Ban Treaty in Ottawa, Canada. 3 December 1997. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Canada)

MORE ABOUT LANDMINES

Antipersonnel mines were first used on a wide scale in World War II. More than 50 years after the conflict ended, mines continue to be inadvertently detonated by civilians as they go about their daily lives. Since World War II, landmines have been used in conflicts throughout the world, from the Vietnam War, to the Korean War, to the first Gulf War. Landmines are designed to maim, not kill. They are intended to injure soldiers because more resources are used caring for an injured soldier than a dead soldier.

Antipersonnel landmines are also used to terrorize civilians, deny access to farming land, and restrict population movement. Regimes, such as Burma's military junta, have been reported to use civilians as "mine sweepers"- sending civilians into mine areas ahead of soldiers, to take the brunt of potential explosions.

Mine technology has made it increasingly cheap and easy to deliver mines, while it becomes more difficult and expensive to recover them. Today, producing one antipersonnel mine costs one dollar. However, once in the ground, it can cost more than $1,000 to find and destroy.

THE MINE BAN TREATY: A MODEL FOR FURTHER ACTION

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines' unorthodox approach of bypassing traditional diplomatic channels in order to urgently move governments to action was not only landmark, it was profoundly effective. The speed by which the treaty entered into force was unprecedented. The historic activism that led 122 states to sign the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997 has become a model for the next generation of disarmament campaigns. Examples include The international Humanitarian Movement to ban Cluster Munitions and The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

For more information visit:

• International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)

• Mines Action Canada (MAC)

• Learn more about the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty
  

• AP Mine Ban Convention

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What Are Cluster Munitions?

Like landmines, cluster munitions are weapons that claim victims indiscriminately during times of war and peace. These weapons have inhumane consequences for innocent civilians decades after conflicts end. Cluster munitions, or cluster bombs, are canister-like weapons that are dropped from planes and open in mid-air to scatter smaller submunitions or bomblets to the ground below. Each canister can drop anywhere from a dozen to 200 bomblets over an area the size of 2-3 football fields.

The mechanical function of cluster munitions is similar to antipersonnel landmines. They have trigger devices that when disturbed, trigger a deadly explosion. Unlike mines, the bomblets are designed to explode on impact, rather than being triggered by a victim stepping on the munition. However, cluster munitions' scariest threat is that they are extremely unreliable weapons. Twenty-five percent of cluster submunitions are estimated to fail to explode on impact. This means the bomblets are left lying on the ground and with the slightest disturbance, like a child's touch or even a gust of wind, explode to kill or maim their victim.

Who Uses Cluster Munitions?

Cluster munitions are standard fare in the arsenals of many state and non-state actors around the world. They are a daily threat to civilians in dozens of countries, especially Vietnam and Kosovo, where past American and NATO bombing has left thousands of unexploded bomblets behind. They were used again in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, where their brightly colored exteriors lure children, who think the bomblets are toys. During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict, it was reported that Israel fired 4 million cluster munitions across Lebanon. After the conflict ended, UN experts estimated as many as one million unexploded bomblets lay waiting across hundreds of strike sites in southern Lebanon. Recognizing the potential aftermath, the Nobel Women's Initiative sent out an urgent call for Israel to cease its use of cluster munitions on Lebanese targets.  Read Ban the Bomblets, by the women of the Nobel Women's Initiative.

What is Being done to Ban Cluster Munitions?

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) began a process to ban the weapon in November 2006 in Geneva. A major breakthrough was achieved in February 2007 when the government of Norway initiated a treaty development process known as the "Oslo Process". (The Oslo Process is modeled after the "Ottawa Process"- a treaty negotiation process that happened outside official UN channels to rapidly negotiate an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines in 1997.) The Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions gained widespread support for establishing this treaty process, which has the aim of developing, negotiating, and concluding a new international treaty rejecting the use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.  Of 49 countries attending the Oslo Conference, 46 pledged their support to the Oslo Process.

By late 2007, the Oslo Process had gained the support of more than 90 states-  including over half of the world's stockpilers and half of its producers of clusters.  This was the result of eight month's work by key supporters of the process, anchored by a series of regional and international conferences in Europe, Central and South America. Additional meetings are planned in 2008, with the goal of concluding a comprehensive treaty banning clusters by the end of 2008.

The Nobel Women's Initiative actively supports the work of the Cluster Munition Coalition as it leads a growing international humanitarian movement to ban yet another inhumane and unnecessary weapon.

What You Can Do to Join the Movement to Ban Clusters:

Some of the world's most strident stockpilers and users of cluster munitions remain outside the treaty process to ban clusters. To find out where your country stands visit our Take Action page.

Visit Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's (WILPF) cluster munitions page for an analysis of gender and cluster munitions. Despite the recognition of the importance of gender in experiences with landmines, little attention has been given to gender in the process to ban cluster munitions.

For more information visit:

• Cluster Munition Coalition

• Get the Make History Happen Toolkit, your action toolkit to ban cluster munitions, including fact sheets, presentations, video clips and more!

• Read the Oslo Declaration (additional states, not listed on the Oslo Declaration, now support the Declaration. As of December 2007 more than 90 states were participating in the Oslo process.)

Read Jody William's report: Cluster Success in Norway

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Immediately following the end of World War II, Japan legislated Article 9 - renouncing war and the maintenance of war potential. Article 9 is an active response to preventing further atrocities. It is Japan's pledge to the people of Asia, the Pacific, and the world, to never again repeat the mistakes it made during World War II. The pacifist principles set out in Article 9 disallow Japan from arms export, as well as prohibit the possession, production, and introduction of nuclear arms.

The standard set forth by Article 9 is a proactive instrument of peace. We at the Nobel Women's Initiative believe that genuine peace and human security is a product of legislation such as Article 9. Peace and militarism cannot coexist.

The Global Article 9 Campaign urges global civil society to adopt the "No War, No Military" message and push for this concept to be included in their own countries' constitutions.  Find out what you can do to support the Campaign.

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What is the Problem?

• Roughly half a million men, women, and children are killed by armed violence every year - that is one person every minute.

• There are more than 630 million small arms (handguns and firearms) and light weapons in the world today, and every year eight million more are produced.

Despite technological advancements that have transformed warfare into a biological, chemical, and nuclear assault on civilians and soldiers alike, conventional weapons are still the dominant killing-machines. Small or light arms remain the most common weapons used against both military and non-military victims.