Handicap International

Over the years, Handicap International has become one of the reference organisations on landmine issues. Handicap International is a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which was awarded with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

In the UK, Handicap International runs the Cluster Bombs campaign and the UKPAC have been working to support Handicap International since 2004.

Liz Archer is the UKPAC's representative for Handicap International UK. She also represents us at Landmine Action and the Cluster Munitions Coalition UK.

Cluster Munitions Petition

Representatives from Landmine Action, Handicap International and No More Landmines met with Foreign Secretary David Miliband to hand over more than 30,000 signatures that have been collected in the UK, calling for a ban on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs. Joining these organisations were Lord Elton, Lord Hannay and Lord Ramsbotham.
The Foreign Secretary spoke with the group for nearly fifteen minutes and said the UK government is committed to the Oslo Process and the CCW (UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons).

All three Peers urged the Foreign Secretary that the UK should attend the Dublin Diplomatic Conference in May [to be attended by 100 countries, although the biggest military powers, including the US, Russia, China, Pakistan and India, are not taking part] and support the negotiation of the strongest possible treaty and not try to weaken it by calling for exemptions to the definition for the types of cluster munitions that the UK stockpiles.

Simon Conway, from Landmine Action [who spoke at the Soroptimist International Convention in Glasgow last July] developed this point, particularly focusing on the M73 bomb. [Britain wants the term 'cluster bomb' to be defined as a device with ten or more 'bomblets', which would allow it to continue using the M73 bomb, which has only nine. Britain also argues for exemption of the M85 because of its 'self-deactivation device”. Such 'smart cluster bombs' are claimed to have a failure rate of 1%, but when used by Israel in Lebanon in 2006, up to 10% failed to explode or deactivate.] Simon Conway said that if the UK fought for exclusions to the definition based on them being able to keep the M73 it would create huge loopholes in the treaty that would allow other countries to continue to produce and use this type of weapon (which will continue to allow large numbers of submunitions to be deployed over an area). He made the point that the UK has never used this weapon in combat and does not contain vast quantities of them in stockpile.

Overall, everybody involved felt the meeting was quite positive even though no guarantees were given.

 

 

 

Pictured right is Vong, a thirteen-year-old boy from Cambodia - who now has an artificial leg thanks to Handicap International. For a boy who loved to play football before his accident, his new-found mobility has given him back his life.

In co-operation with Handicap International, clubs and regions have raised awareness of the Cluster bomb Campaign by organising events; these have included building ‘Pyramids of Shoes’ during Landmine Awareness Week each November and collecting thousands of signatures for their petitions. We continue to support their campaign. 

 

 

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