dsc_0007While I was in New York to launch the Disarm DVD, I stopped by a diplomatic meeting at the United Nations on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty. Governments had convened for the first meeting of a delightfully named “open-ended working group,” the latest phase in what has become a lengthy effort to create an international treaty to regulate government transfers of conventional weapons and small arms. (more…)

dsc_4582brimaryweblrWe released the DVD of our documentary feature film on landmines, Disarm, at at the beautiful Scandinavia House venue near the United Nations in New York Monday, 2 March. A massive snowfall the night before and throughout the day had us worried that the event would be a bust, but 150 people showed up to watch the film and listen to a panel discussion featuring diplomats, activists and the filmmakers. A full report on the event is available on Disarm’s website. The film can be purchased from Amazon, rented from Netflix, and purchased via digital download from IndiePix.

Next Step Productions is grateful to everyone involved in the production of the DVD (especially Disarm director Brian Liu, Guillaume Bernadeau, Amy O’Byrne, Nick Pimentel, Katy Wood, and our translators).  We are grateful to IndiePix for their taking Disarm on and for their phenomenal organising around the New York launch event – many thanks to  Bob Alexander, Danielle DiGiacomo, Ryan Harrington, Liz Ogilvie, and Matt Posorske. Finally, a big thanks to the speakers and participants at the New York event as well as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) for its support.

dsc_0016I stopped in Managua, Nicaragua this week to attend the first the first in a series of regional meetings planned in the lead-up to the Mine Ban Treaty’s Second Review Conference, which will take place in Cartagena, Colombia from 30 November-4 December 2009. Government representatives from 18 countries across the region attended the Managua Workshop as did campaigners from a dozen countries.  The campaign’s delegation included eight landmine survivors from Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Peru.

It was interesting to be back in Nicaragua; my first visit was eight years ago just after 9/11. The mine clearance work in the region is nearing completion. Nicaragua is the last country in Central America still complete its demining program. They are working hard to meet this goal by December, but it requires ongoing funding to complete. We had a disheartening discussion on $$$ with the U.S. embassy, as the U.S. demining programme had unilaterally decided that Nicaragua is “mine-impact free” and no longer requires support. Shame that the U.S. couldn’t have taken a joint decision together with other donors who are part of the Mine Ban Treaty as Nicaragua still requires continued support in order to be “mine-free.”

disarmdvdart-loWe’re preparing an event in New York to launch the DVD of Disarm. After completing the film in 2005 it screened at film festivals in the United States and around the world until Janson Media picked up the film’s broadcast distribution. Last year, independent film distributor IndiePix agreed to distribute the Disarm DVD, which we spent many, many months preparing. We’re very proud of the final product. The DVD is loaded with extras including 40 minutes of deleted scenes and director’s commentary. It includes subtitle French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

The DVD will be available from stores in Canada, the US and UK, online at Amazon and Netflix, and available via digital download. We’re asking all our friends and supporters to PLEASE buy the film, spread the word, and leave comments and ratings on the Disarm profile on Amazon and Netflix.

We’re working with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) on the 2 March event at Scandinavia House in New York, where we’ll will launch the DVD and commemorate the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty’s tenth anniversary. The speaker line-up includes Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams, Colombian Ambassador Claudia Blum, Norwegian Ambassador Mona Juul, and Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch. It should be a great launch for Disarm’s long-awaited DVD!

2009alison_des_forgesMy colleague Alison Des Forges died in a plane crash in New York this week. She was an researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch (HRW). A receipent of the MacArthur ‘genius’ award, Alison was a very inspiring colleague and her death has touched everyone at HRW. The New York Times published her obituary today.

When I first joined HRW’s DC office in May 1998, the associates for the Arms and Africa divisions shared a tiny office next to mine. I remember the Africa associate Juliet Wilson working weekends and evenings to format (in word perfect!) Alison’s authoritative account of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda: Leave None to Tell the Story. When the 789-page book was issued in March 1999 it was the largest publication ever produced by HRW. Two months later, we took that record with the hefty Landmine Monitor Report 1999. I still have my copy of Alison’s report on my bookshelf – it takes pride of place. May she rest in peace.

Next Step Productions’ website is now back in action thanks to the talented Mr Jason Conny, who has helped us transition to a new server and system.  It had also become tricky to update several websites (from the Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition to Disarm) and simultaneously maintain a social networking presence on Facebook and elsewhere…

The extent to which online advocacy has become such a core aspect of our organising never ceases to amaze me. From Skype calls to urgent email alerts to the ever-sophisticated process of putting the annual Landmine Monitor report to print it seems like more than half my life is spent on my computer online. Not great when it’s summer outside!

3027941909_0187df7abd1During my time in Lebanon I visited an all-women cluster munition clearance project run by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) in Tibnine, a town in the central part of South Lebanon. I wanted to see their work and brief two of the women that were invited to attend the Oslo Signing Conference of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. I haven’t found a place to write up the notes of this visit so thought I’d share it here. (more…)

mw08-016On 18 October 2008, I gave a joint presentation at a seminar in Wellington on the topic of ‘Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: Exploring the Next Steps.’ The presentation considered lessons from the Ottawa Process that resulted in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the Oslo Process that has produced the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The presentation considered how these unconventional, but successful diplomatic endeavors could prove instructive in looking at how to move forward nuclear disarmament. (more…)

I just found out that Palau joined the Mine Ban Treaty on 18 November 2007 (my birthday!), bringing the number of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty to 156. The announcement of the accession was made on the first day of the Eighth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Jordan. Palau’s close military ties with the United States, which has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty, complicated its ability to join the treaty. The announcement is really nice as I provided the Landmine Monitor update on Palau for this year’s report and have on several occassions met the diplomat who made the accession happen. Here’s a photo of Marvin T. Ngirutang that I took in Zagreb in 2005.

Today ICBL’s Landmine Monitor Report 2007 was released with events around the world. I provided the Pacific updates for this year’s report after the death of long-time landmine campaigner John Head. I handed the report over to David Hodge, principal of Auckland’s Rangitoto College (the largest high school in Australasia), at the conclusion of a day of activities on landmines and cluster bombs. The school’s media director Peter Harwood set up the launch to mark the conclusion of a school semester that had seen all 640 of the school’s Year 10 (Form 4) students learn about landmines as part of a national curriculum piece on social action. My film documentary film Disarm featured among the teaching resources. Landmine Monitor received some media attention here because, according to the South Korea update, New Zealand imported 1,000 Claymore mines in 2006. This mines are permitted under the Mine Ban Treaty if operated in command-detonated mode only. TV 3 also ran a piece on the launch event, but not until 8 December?

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