Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the Peace Prize with her that year. At that time, she became the 10th woman – and third American woman—in its almost 100-year history to receive the Prize. Since her protests of the Vietnam War, she has been a life-long advocate of freedom, self-determination and human and civil rights...
Since January of 2006, Jody Williams has worked to achieve her peace work through the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which she chairs. Along with sister Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi of Iran, she took the lead in establishing the Nobel Women’s Initiative, and was joined by sister Laureates Wangari Maathai (Kenya), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala) and Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland). Its mission is to use the prestige and access afforded by the Nobel Prize to spotlight and promote efforts of women’s rights activists, researchers and organizations working to advance peace, justice and equality for women. By helping to advance the cause of women, the Nobel Women’s Initiative advances all of humanity.
Landmine Treaty Panel Demands US Signature
Online Exclusive
Special to The Hoya
Published: Thursday, March 3, 2011
Updated: Thursday, March 3, 2011 20:03
In honor of the 12th anniversary of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, experts visited Georgetown on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the agreement and the continuing efforts to obtain the United States' signature.
Professor and Director of the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery Ken Rutherford, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams and Director of Human Rights Watch's Arm Division Stephen Goose participated in the panel...
The treaty, largely achieved through the efforts of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines led by Williams, includes 132 countries worldwide and requires signatories to both halt mine production and destroy existing antipersonnel mines...
..Despite President Obama's creation of the Land Mine Policy Review in 2009, the U.S. still has not agreed to sign the Mine Ban Treaty. The agreement, if signed, would require the U.S. military to destroy a stockpile of over 1 million mines...
The United States has not used antipersonnel mines since the Gulf War in 1991, trivializing the need to stockpile the weapons and further complicating the matter according to panelists. Goose believes that despite written support from 68 members of the Senate and the pressure of the international community, the United States military is delaying the process because it is unwilling to reject the possibility of future land mine use.
While the United States has tried to renegotiate terms of the treaty to include smart mines, temporary explosives that do not remain in the ground for long periods of time, the international community has rejected anything aside from a complete ban.
As the ICBL and treaty members continue to up the pressure on the United States, Goose, Williams and Rutherford were optimistic that Obama would sign the treaty sometime during 2011. For now, the trio seemed mollified by the 12th anniversary.