Hi All,
This meeting, co-sponsored by Norwegian People's Aid and Cluster Munition Coalition is for the the purpose of beginning the process of getting a treaty passed to stop the production, use and trade of cluster munitions. The meeting is focused and inspiring. We spent all day yesterday at the Nobel Peace Centre here in Oslo. We got excellent footage from these meetings. We attended a press conference and later back to back presentations from noon until 18:30.The presentations were informative and moving. Mr Steve Goose, Executive Director of the Arms Division, Human Rights Watch/Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) called cluster munitions "The Word's Most Dangerous Weapon." He said that this treaty will prevent a humanitarian disaster because there are billions of cluster submunitions stockpiled in 75 countries. Countries that claim to be the guardians of International Human Laws are the biggest violators.
Nobel Laureate for Peace, Prof Jody Williams said that it is time for governments to protect citizens, not the cluster munitions stockpiles. She said governments need to stop spending financial resources on war and destruction and start spending it on Human Security. Mr Erik Solheim, Minister of Development of Norway, said that all movements start with one person, and that now it is just a dream to ban cluster munitions, but like slavery, apartheid, and landmines, we will see the day that they are no longer accepted. He said that those of us from Civil Society are the only ones who can begin to make this happen. Mr Jean-Baptiste Richardier, Director General, Handicap International gave an impassioned speech about the inhumanity of cluster bombs. Mr Thomas Nash, Coordinator of CMC, clearly articulated the mission ahead of us.
We met a cluster munitions victims from Serbia, former deminer, Mr Branislav Kapetanovic, where NATO dropped cluster munitions in 1999 (American, British and Dutch) with 11,000 casualties. Recent victims from Lebanon are also here.
Mr Reuben Noguirera McCarthy, Programme Officer, Landmines and Small Arms Team, UNICEF gave a moving presentation about children and cluster munitions. He mentioned only a few NGO's for their good work, and Clear Path International was among them. Later I thanked him for his presentation and introduced myself. I also thanked him for the beautiful mines risk education billboards newly erected in Central Vietnam by UNICEF, and told him we are featuring them in our film.Mr Kevin Bryant, Senior Technical Advisor (and also former military man/clearance specialist and lanmine victim while conducting work in Lebanon) gave an informative presentation about clearance.
The room is filled with about 100 NGO's, passionate about banning cluster munitions. Some legislators showed up from France and Norway and told us that they are very influenced by what NGO's report to them from the field, and they depend on us for their decisions.
It seems that everyone here knows about Clear Path's good work in victim assistance! Steve Goose (who I've been reading for years as a big part of my reasearch for the film) lit up with recognition when I talked about Clear Path with him.
I believe we got excellent footage from yesterday's meetings. We shot almost the whole day.
Today we will be attending workshops in the same venue as 48 invited government representatives (the U.S. wasn't invited because only those interested in working in earnest toward a ban are invited). We will have the opportunity to lobby the representatives.
I hope Senators Feinstein and Leahy are successful with their ammendment. We need to push our country to join Belgium and Norway, the two countries that have already banned cluster munitions! Thank you, Senators! Your work is so important.
More later.
Best,
Joan
No comments:
Post a Comment