Spain and Albania ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on June 17, 2009. This follows the signing of the treaty last week by Jamaica and Nigeria. Ten countries have now ratified the treaty. Another 20 countries need to ratify the convention before it enters into force. Canada has not yet ratified. More...

J. H. Bruns Collegiate's student group S.H.O.W. (Students Helping Our World) will be hosting a benefit concert for the One Love Project, an organization that provides free prosthetic limbs for landmine victims in Rwanda and Burundi. The concert will be Friday, May 29 at 7:00 pm in the J. H. Bruns Collegiate gymnasium. The event will feature Jack Straight, a local community-based student rock band. We are hoping to sell up to 500 tickets, $10 each for students, and $20 for adults. Tickets will be made available for purchase through participating LRSD high schools' Student Councils. More...

Twenty-nine schools have already signed on to the 2008-2009 "100 Schools Challenge"™ and are raising money to support landmine survivors and other people with disabilities in Rwanda, Burundi, and Jordan. The MBCBL is grateful that so many students and their teachers want to take local action to help make a global difference! More...

February 23rd, 2009 (Ottawa)– Ten years after the historic treaty banning antipersonnel mines became binding international law, concerned citizens in Canada and 50 other countries around the globe are taking action this week to once again draw the world’s attention to the horrific consequences of landmines and cluster bombs and to call for renewed efforts toward a mine-free world. “Clearing the Path – Removing Lethal Barriers” is the theme of the 10th annual Canadian Landmine Action Week (CLAW) taking place from February 23rd-March 1st, 2009. More...

Trial Chamber I today rendered judgement in the “Military I” case involving four senior officers of the Rwandan army in 1994: Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, Director of Cabinet in the Rwandan Ministry of Defence; General Gratien Kabiligi, head of the military operations bureau (G-3) of the army general staff; Major Aloys Ntabakuze, commander of the Para Commando Battalion; and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, commander of the Operational Sector of Gisenyi.

It sentenced Bagosora, Ntabakuze and Nsengiyumva to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes based on their role in crimes committed in Rwanda. The Chamber acquitted Kabiligi of all charges against him and ordered his release. It also acquitted each of the Accused of conspiring to commit genocide before 7 April 1994. More...

November 21st, 2008, Geneva: A report, coordinated by Mines Action Canada and released by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines today, states that Greece and Turkey, with a combined stockpile of 4.2 million antipersonnel mines, are in serious violation of the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines after failing to meet their 1 March 2008 deadline to destroy stocks. Belarus also missed its deadline, but is working to secure funding to destroy its stocks. More...

A UN peacekeeper in Lebanon has been killed in an explosion while clearing munitions left over from the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The sapper belonged to the 370-strong Belgian contingent in the peacekeeping force known as Unifil. More...

Violence in Afghanistan has reached its worst level since 2001 with more than 260 civilians killed in July alone, a group of 100 aid agencies said on Friday, calling on all sides to do more to protect the lives of non-combatants. More...