Nobel Laureates urge Obama to ban landmines

Human Rights Watch:

Fifteen Nobel Peace Prize recipients have sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to ban antipersonnel landmines, Human Rights Watch said today. The letter was sent on November 30, 2010, as the Obama administration's formal review of US landmine policy entered its second year.

The letter was signed by: Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams (1976), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Elie Wiesel (1986), Oscar Arias Sánchez (1987), His Holiness Dalai Lama (1989), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), F.W. De Klerk (1993), José Ramos-Horta (1996), Jody Williams (1997), John Hume (1998), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Wangari Maathai (2004), and Mohamed El Baradei (2005).

Jody Williams, an American, was awarded the prize along with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) largely for their role in bringing about the Mine Ban Treaty.

"As a Nobel Peace Laureate himself, President Obama should exercise the moral weight that the prize carries and heed his fellow laureates' call to ban landmines," said Steve Goose, Arms Division director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the ICBL. "This letter is a powerful sign of support for the US to join the Mine Ban treaty."

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