April 10, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.- Jody Williams, a founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), will speak about land mines and international affairs on Thursday, April 10, at 4 p.m. in Johnson Chapel at Amherst College. Williams and the ICBL received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for their work. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Corliss Lamont Lectureship for a Peaceful World, the Association of Amherst Students, the departments of political science and women's and gender studies and the Office of the President at Amherst College.
When the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced in 1997, the Nobel Committee said that Williams and the ICBL had transformed the ban on these deadly and unforgiving weapons from "a vision to a feasible reality." It also noted that by working with smaller countries, "this work has grown into a convincing example of an effective policy for peace that could prove of decisive importance to the international effort for disarmament."
The New York Times found Williams that day at her home in Putney, Vt. "Barefoot in her rustic yard here, and bare-knuckled as ever in her approach, Ms. Williams taunted President Clinton… saying he would be branded a coward if the United States continued to refuse to sign the international treaty banning land mines. 'If President Clinton wants the legacy of his administration to be that he did not have the courage to be the Commander in Chief of his military, that is his legacy, and I feel sorry for him,' she said. 'I think it's tragic that President Clinton does not want to be on the side of humanity.'" The United States has not yet signed the treaty.
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