Jody Williams

Jody Williams has been involved in the fight against anti-personnel landmines (APL's) since November of 1991, when representatives from Medico International, a German humanitarian organization, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, based in Washington, asked her to coordinate an international organization focused on obtaining a ban on the weapons (The International Campaign to Ban Landmines or ICBL). Initially apprehensive about how the issue would be received by the international community, Williams soon found that banning landmines was becoming an extremely popular cause, backed by public figures such as the late Princess Diana, and Lloyd Axworthy, the Canadian foreign minister.

Williams is not the product of a war-torn nation, or a family broken by military disaster. Rather, she is the daughter of a judge and a housing supervisor, born and raised in Putney, VT. Williams graduated from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and began her social activism shortly afterwards. In the 1980's she began protesting United States policy in Central America as coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project, and eventually became the associate director of Medical Aid to El Salvador, based in Los Angeles (Bellafante 65). Williams is also co-author of After the Guns Fall Silent: The Legacy of Landmines, available from the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (published in 1995, 554pp.).

In 1992, Williams organized the first international conference on the issue of a ban on landmines, which took place in October of that year, in New York City. At that time only six NGO's, or non-governmental organizations attended. However, this conference was only the beginning. The following May, a similar conference in London attracted 40 organizations, and since that time, the ICBL has grown to over 1,000 organizations based in 60 countries around the world (Jenish 33).

In October 1996, the Canadian government, under the guidance of Lloyd Axworthy, organized a conference in Ottawa to discuss a ban on landmines. Although the conference was well attended (50 nations had delegates present, and another 25 had observers in attendance), talks floundered. However, with a bold challenge from Axworthy to the participants that they return in December 1997 to sign a treaty, great progress was made. Eventually, over 120 countries ended up signing the Ottawa Treaty (click here for full text of treaty).Since the second Ottawa conference, thirteen of those countries have actually ratified the treaty.The full list of signatories and ratifiers can be seen by clicking here.

By far the greatest accomplishment that Williams has had with the ICBL is their joint receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1997. Much has been made of Williams' continued grassroots persona, what with her habit of greeting the press in bare feet and worn jeans. However, Williams has shown recently that she will not be brushed aside by the US government as so many grassroots activists are. She has repeatedly challenged the President and Congress to take a leadership role in the fight against APL's, and in one famous remark called the President a "weenie" for his vacillation on the Ottawa treaty.

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