Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf and 14 other senior American military officers wrote an open letter to President Clinton published in the New York Times in support of a ban in April 1996. The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation is one of the organizations in the forefront of the movement to ban AP mines, as many of their members suffered severe casualties from their nation's own mines. The first step is to encourage as many countries as possible to sign the December 1997 treaty. Meetings and conferences are being held throughout the world in 1997 to build support for an AP mine ban by December. Once the treaty is signed, we must then work to universalize the ban, so that children everywhere are safe to walk the earth.
Individuals can appeal to their governments to sign the Ottawa treaty.
This is recognized as an issue of global importance.