US Friends push for landmine ban
US has ‘a moral obligation to the past victims of landmines and to future generations to do better’
Two US Quaker organisations joined thirty-four other leaders in calling on Joe Biden to adopt a new landmine policy after the administration announced that it was conducting a review. Representatives from both the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation signed a letter calling on the US government to set out a new policy that puts the United States on course not just to ‘curtail the use of landmines’, but to ban their use without geographic exception, and to swiftly accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
Stating that the US has ‘a moral obligation to the past victims of landmines and to future generations to do better’, the letter outlines a number of recommendations. It says: ‘Of the more than 50 countries that once produced landmines, 40 have ceased and renounced production. Under the US landmine policy introduced by the Trump administration, the USA would join the small handful of countries that defy the global norm against landmines by permitting production of these banned indiscriminate weapons.’
