In the annals of achievements for landmine survivors, 1997 is a year of unprecedented success. 122 countries sign the Treaty to Ban antipersonnel landmines, and LSN is recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for its contribution to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-recipient of the 1997 Peace Prize. Our first amputee support network is launched in Bosnia, during LSN's visit there with Diana, Princess of Wales. Her high-profile tour of Bosnia and strong support of LSN attracts global media attention.
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December 1997London, England. LSN is invited by the British Government to serve on the Charities Advisory Group for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Committee.
December 1997Colorado. LSN is featured guest at Disabled Sports USA's 10th Annual Ski Spectacular to promote rehabilitation through sports. American, Bosnian and Jordanian survivors participate in press conference and special training.
December 1997Oslo, Norway. LSN is recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for its contribution to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-recipient of the 1997 Peace Prize.
December 1997LSN pays tribute to the Princess of Wales for her contribution to the global movement to ban landmines and her courageous work reaching out to mine victims in Bosnia and other mine-affected countries.
December 1997Ottawa, Canada. Over 120 governments agree to ban the production, stockpile, use and transfer of anti-personnel mines by signing a global treaty that includes language recommended by LSN urging treaty signatories to rehabilitate the victims - the first time humanitarian assistance for victims has ever been included in an arms control treaty.
November 1997LSN issues a challenge to more than 100 governments to raise $3 billion for victim assistance during the next ten years. LSN and twenty other humanitarian organizations urge governments to aim to provide new arms, legs and eyes for all mine victims by the year 2010. Full rehabilitation, however, will also require follow-up care, vocational training and employment opportunities for the disabled.
November 1997Rotterdam, Netherlands. MTV Europe recognizes achievements of LSN in Bosnia by giving the "Free Your Mind Award" to Plamenko Priganica at the 1997 European Music Awards.
September 1997The United States appears ready to take a leadership role on victim assistance. President Clinton pledges: "We must increase assistance to landmine victims to help them heal and take their place as productive members of their societies."
September 1997Victim assistance is added to the draft treaty to ban landmines. Article 6, paragraph 3 of the treaty now reads: "Each State Party in a position to do so shall provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation and social and economic reintegration of mine victims". The language on social and economic reintegration is significant because it emphasizes the need to provide assistance beyond emergency medical care and prosthetics.
August 1997LSN hosts Diana, Princess of Wales, on her last humanitarian mission - a high-profile tour of Bosnia, attracting global media attention to the plight of Bosnian mine victims prior to the September 1997 treaty negotiations in Oslo, Norway. Assistance, including prosthetics and food support, is provided to each family visited by the Princess.
July 1997LSN hires Washington-based international law firm, Arnold & Porter, to recommend appropriate language on victim assistance in the treaty. To build support for victim assistance in the treaty, LSN circulates Arnold & Porter's recommendations to a dozen key governments and to other organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
June 1997Brussels, Belgium. LSN calls on governments to include humanitarian assistance for victims in the draft treaty to ban landmines. More than a dozen survivors from around the world recount their painful experiences and urge world leaders not to forget the victims in the rush to secure a ban treaty in Ottawa in December 1997. LSN is the first organization to propose specific language on victim assistance for inclusion in the treaty, including: "Each State Party in a position to do so shall provide assistance for the rehabilitation of mine victims."
June 1997Washington, DC. LSN and Red Cross join Princess of Wales at Press conference on landmines and participate in fundraiser for mine victims that raised over $600,000.
June 1997London, England. LSN co-hosts landmine conference with Mines Advisory Group at which Diana, Princess of Wales delivers her first public speech on landmines and her January 1997 trip to Angola.
May 1997Johannesburg, South Africa. LSN helps arrange panel for Organization of African Unity landmine conference; introduces Eritrean survivor, Abraham Gebreyesus, to South African surgeons who will later operate on Abraham's eyes to restore his vision; supplies wheelchair for head of Mozambique's leading disability organization.
April 1997British survivor, Chris Moon, who lost his leg and an arm while working with a humanitarian mine-clearance team in Mozambique, runs 150 miles across the Sahara Desert to raise $150,000 to make artificial limbs for amputees. He is the first amputee ever to finish the race.
February 1997Maputo, Mozambique. LSN helps arrange for survivors from several countries to participate in 4th International NGO Landmine Conference; LSN facilitates workshop on disability, landmines and advocacy, and makes $1,000 grant to a small fund created to support children mine victims in memory of Dr. Gilles Rouillon, a French physician killed by a landmine explosion in Mozambique.
January 1997Winnipeg, Canada. LSN participates in first international conference on victim assistance, joining Canada's leading disability organizations to develop an action plan to support mine victims worldwide.
