Members of the Benenson
Society at St Aloysius Collge, Milsons Point, were thrilled recently when their
petition imploring the US
to sign the Ottawa Treaty on landmines was acknowledged by the Counsellor for
Political and Economic Affairs to the President. The Chairman of the society at
the school, Sam Murray, says the response defied the group's scepticism.
Four months ago, the
Benenson Society launched its largest campaign to date. By sending around
volunteers to the tutor groups scattered around the school, we managed to craft
a petition of over five hundred signatures, imploring the United States of
America to sign the Ottawa Treaty, an international convention banning the manufacture
and use of antipersonnel landmines.
Despite the magnitude of
the campaign, there was naturally some scepticism about the effect it would
realistically have, and whether it would get past US Ambassador Bleich's
shredder. This cynicism has long greeted many of the society's campaigns in the
past, and has varied between healthy caution and outright contrarian hostility.
Regardless, the society is
pleased to announce that we have received a reply to our petition; not from the
ambassador, but from Edward Kagan, the Counsellor for Political and Economic
Affairs to the President. In the letter, Mr Kagan thanked us for the petition,
and said that he was going to pass it onto Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
He also explained that
President Obama was currently reviewing the United States Policy on landmines,
and had resolved to send a US representative to the Second Review Conference of
the Ottawa Convention in Cartagena, Columbia, to discuss potential
circumstances in signing the treaty.
It is also worth noting
that these new resolutions by the Obama Administration came at the same time as
'great public outcry' at the decision not to sign the treaty, according to
American news media. We would like
to believe that we are part of a wider movement that is now clearly affecting
the world for the better. In conclusion, the society considers the campaign to
have been a great success, demonstrating the effect that one small school in Australia
can have on the world, by being part of a movement much larger than any one
individual or organisation.
Sam Murray, Chairman of the Benenson Society at St Aloysius
College, Milsons Point