Sustainable Good

"What If..." A Multimedia Competition on Landmines and Cluster Munitions for Young Adults

Mines Action Canada, a member organization of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is calling on young people to enter short multimedia presentations on the theme of "What If...", as it relates to landmines and cluster munitions. There are only 12 days left in this competition -- the top three winners will receive a camcorder. The winning presentation will be shown at the international conference marking 10 years of the antipersonnel landmine ban in Cartagena, Colombia in November. The competition is only open to young people, 18 to 30 years old, who live outside Canada.  For more information on the competition, click here.

US National Cluster Munitions Call-In Day

Cluster munitions campaigners in the US are urging Americans to call their senators on 30 March 2009 and ask them to support the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, S. 416.

This legislation would prohibit the US from using cluster munitions that have more than a 1% failure rate or in civilian areas.  This would help prevent the deadly contamination of conflict zones with dangerous unexploded ‘dud’ bomblets that act like de facto landmines.

Action on Cluster Bombs

Sometimes I am amazed at how connected different parts of work and life are.

One of the issues that the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) (the organization that I work for) is working on is banning cluster bombs. A couple of months ago, Matt wrote about how cluster bombs affect the poor. His video post on August 26th called "How Cluster Bombs Impact the Poor." is very good. Then a few weeks ago, one of my collegues that is working on the cluster bomb issue told me that Senator Voinovich from my home state of Ohio was critical to legislation to ban cluster bombs. So I went to his office with my collogues and asked him to sign the bill to ban these terrible weapons. We were met with some resistance, because Voinovich's staff said they hadn't heard from constituents on this issue. Never understimate the power you have to influence your Congressional representatives!

The Impact of Cluster Bombs on the Poor

Human rights groups have strongly condemned Russia's alleged use of cluster bombs in the fighting in Georgia.  These weapons, which target whole areas and often create de facto minefields, are considered illegitimate by much of the international community -- 107 countries have signed on to a new cluster munition ban treaty.  The US is not a signator -- contact your elected officials and ask them to support the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act.