Human Rights Watch calls on U.S. companies to take immediate steps to disassociate themselves from future involvement in antipersonnel mine production. We congratulate the renouncing companies for responding to our concerns and for showing strong moral leadership in their respective industries. We urge the other companies to reconsider their positions and to join the rapidly growing international movement toward a ban on antipersonnel mines. There is an urgent need for the private sector to initiate voluntary codes of conduct, either at an industry-wide level or at the company level, to stop the supply of landmine components. Designing, developing and making antipersonnel mines, or supplying component parts for their use, is immoral in light of the devastating impact caused by these indiscriminate "hidden killers."
Human Rights Watch encourages the more than 180 nongovernmental organizations in the USCBL, as well as concerned citizens across the country, to utilize this report as part of a stigmatization campaign to get U.S. corporations out of the antipersonnel landmine business. We urge supporters of an international ban on antipersonnel mines to send statements of support to companies which have renounced future involvement in mine production, and to send statements of protest to those which have not. Human Rights Watch encourages citizens to take actions such as divestment and shareholder resolutions of protest.
