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	Armed violence a major obstacle to development by Helen Clark UN Development Programme (UNDP)   12 May 2010   Armed violence remains one of the main obstacles to the achievement the social development and poverty alleviation targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations development chief said today at a conference to address the problem.   “Armed violence has a devastating effect on development progress,” said Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “Life as normal is severely disrupted – affecting citizens’ safety and security and access to basic services and livelihoods,” she told the gathering in Geneva, co-hosted by UNDP and the Norwegian foreign ministry.   “The international community can mobilise to deter the proliferation and use of the weapons which fuel this violence,” Miss Clark added.   Delegates from international organizations, civil society, and 60 States attended the conference to discuss strategies to tackle armed violence.   Their conclusions will contribute to the 2010 MDGs review process, leading up to the High Level MDGs summit in New York in September, when world leaders will gather to assess progress, identify gaps, and commit to a concrete action agenda to achieve the MDGs by 2015.   “Every day armed violence kills more than 2,000 people,” said Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre. “The majority of these fatalities are civilians. This is a fundamental challenge to our common humanitarian and developmental goals. States must come together and work in partnership with the UN and civil society to take action against armed violence now,” he said.   Each year, armed violence in non-conflict States costs the world’s economies approximately $163 billion, more than the sum total of all official development assistance (ODA), according to UNDP.   At the conference, represented countries endorsed commitments to strive to reduce and curb armed violence. By signing on to the Oslo Commitments on Armed Violence sponsored by Norway and UNDP, States committed themselves to a wide range of actions, including better monitoring and recording of armed violence and supporting victims through the provision of adequate care and rehabilitation.   The commitments also call for the integration of armed violence into development plans at all levels of Government and urge strengthened international cooperation and assistance to prevent and reduce armed violence.
	U.S. must join the Mine Ban Treaty by Handicap International USA   May 08 2010   This week, 68 senators—signifying a key two-thirds Senate majority—will deliver a letter to President Obama asking the administration to accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.   This demonstration of Congressional support for the international treaty banning landmines was seen as a step in the right direction by nongovernmental organization Handicap International, which has been involved in landmine clearance and victim assistance efforts since the early 1990s.   “For the past 30 years, Handicap International has worked with men, women and children whose shattered limbs bear mute testimony to the devastating effects landmines have on civilian populations years after conflict has ended,” said Wendy Batson, executive director of Handicap International. “As a founder of the movement to ban landmines in the early 1990s, we are happy to see Congress fully standing behind speedy accession to the treaty.”   In letters from legislators the effectiveness of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty is noted, “In the ten years since the Convention came into force, 158 nations have signed including the United Kingdom and other ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] partners, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan which, like Colombia, are parties to the Convention and have suffered thousands of mine casualties. The Convention has led to a dramatic decline in the use, production, and export of anti-personnel mines.”   These letters follow a letter sent to President Obama on March 22 by leaders from 65 nongovernmental organizations, including Handicap International, that also urge the U.S. to relinquish antipersonnel landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty immediately.   The United States began a comprehensive landmine policy review in late 2009 at the direction of President Obama. The U.S. is the biggest donor to mine clearance programs around the world. However, it still retains 10.4 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines, some dating to the 1970"s, for potential future use and has not joined the 1997 treaty prohibiting the weapon. In 1998, President Clinton set the goal of joining the treaty in 2006, but President Bush reversed course in 2004 and declared that the U.S. would not join.   Although landmine casualty rates have decreased over the past decade, the total number of casualties is still high, according to the 2009 Landmine Monitor Report, which identified 73,576 casualties in 119 countries/areas between 1999 and 2008.   “Young people today are still being injured by a weapon that was put in the ground many years before they were born,” Batson said. “Handicap International urges our government to join the international community that has made this treaty such a potent force in reducing the suffering of populations in more than seventy countries.” Visit the related web page
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