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Call to ban anti-personnel land mines

Resolution number
18
Whereas
  1. Anti-personnel land mines that detonate on contact are indiscriminate weapons that remain hidden and lethal long after the end of a conflict;
  2. Anti-personnel mines have killed or mutilated tens of thousands of civilians and rendered large tracts of agricultural and pastoral land unusable, preventing the subsistence and economic development of rural populations;
  3. In most countries women and children are especially affected as direct victims through their agricultural and pastoral work or through death and disabling of their husbands and fathers;
  4. The 1981 United Nations Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby traps and other Devices has failed to prevent the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines but unfortunately international law permits the use of land mines to achieve "defensive" military objectives;
  5. The CCR adopted Resolution 14 at the Consultation in Winnipeg in November 1992 calling for Canada to ratify the Land Mines Protocol and to press other states of the United Nations to do likewise;
  6. Land mines remain an obstacle to the durable solution of voluntary repatriation for refugees;
Therefore be it resolved

That:

  1. The CCR join a growing number of organizations including Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation in a joint call for:
    1. An international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and sale, transfer or export of antipersonnel mines;
    2. The establishment of an international fund, administered by the United Nations, to promote and finance landmine awareness, clearance and eradication programs worldwide;
    3. Countries responsible for the production and dissemination of anti-personnel mines to contribute to the international fund;
  2. The CCR call on the government of Canada to support and promote an international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and sale, transfer or export of antipersonnel mines;
  3. The CCR urge the government of Canada to support and promote the establishment of an international fund, administered by the United Nations, to promote and finance landmine awareness, clearance and eradication programs worldwide;
  4. The CCR call on the government of Canada to urge countries responsible for the production and dissemination of anti-personnel mines to contribute to the international fund.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement