062-LB-04

Note to Editors: Image available at http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1130

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

Contact: Lori Brandt
(949) 824-5484
lbrandt@uci.edu

HEATHER MILLS MCCARTNEY TO ADDRESS
HUMAN SECURITY SUMMIT AT UCI

Fellowship in Human Security Established in Mills McCartney’s Honor

Irvine, Calif., April 20, 2004 — Policymakers, activists and scholars will gather Tuesday, April 28, for a Human Security Summit at UC Irvine, sponsored by the UCI Center for Unconventional Security Affairs. The summit, which will feature a keynote address by anti-landmine activist Heather Mills McCartney, will focus on the lessons learned and future policies related to the international movement to ban landmines.
During the summit, the center will formally announce the creation of the Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security, which will support UCI graduate students conducting research on pressing human security issues.
“This topic is particularly salient given recent changes to the U.S. landmine policy announced in March by the George W. Bush Administration,� said center director Richard Matthew, associate professor of international and environmental politics. “Heather has made a significant contribution to the international movement to ban landmines. Her unrelenting and tireless work – counseling individuals victimized by landmines, meeting with world leaders and raising awareness of present and future policies and prevention – is something in which we can all take pride.�
A United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Heather Mills McCartney’s keynote speech “Clearing a Path to a Safer World� will include personal video footage of her experiences with landmine survivors.
The summit will consist of a mid-day working session for policymakers, scholars, activists and interested business and community leaders. In addition to Matthew, presenters will include Bryan McDonald, the center’s associate director; Kenneth Rutherford, landmine survivor and co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network; James Lawrence, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. State Department; Paul Arcangeli, U.S. Army Humanitarian De-mining Training Center; and Oren Schlein, United Nations Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery’s Mine Action Team.
Renowned as an anti-landmine activist and a patron of Adopt-A-Minefield, Mills McCartney has been involved in the landmine issue for more than a decade. She has worn an artificial limb since 1993, and as a result, has become a strong advocate for the disabled. Since 1994, when she started shipping used artificial limbs and medical equipment to Croatia, her work has helped more than 366,000 people, and through Adopt-A-Minefield, Mills McCartney has been responsible for the clearance of nearly 8 million square meters of mine fields.
According to Matthew, some 60 million landmines around the world prevent people from accessing the land they need to survive. Humanitarian efforts to rehabilitate landmine survivors, restore mined land and ban the use of landmines contribute to human security. These efforts also help reduce environmental degradation which can push people toward forms of political violence and crime that threaten the national security of America and its allies.
Matthew, whose research examines the root causes of political violence, is an editor of the forthcoming book, “Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War’s Hidden Legacy.� His co-editors include Kenneth Rutherford and Bryan McDonald. Prefaces to the book are written by Mills McCartney and Sir Paul McCartney, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and the Honorable Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg and former Canadian Parliament member.
The public is invited to the presentation by Mills McCartney at 4 p.m. at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Conference Center. For tickets, call (949) 824-1278. Tickets are $250 per person, and proceeds of the event will support the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and the Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security. All attendees will receive a free copy of the book, “Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War’s Hidden Legacy.�
Matthew founded UCI’s Center for Unconventional Security Affairs in 2002 in the School of Social Ecology to address the security challenges of the 21st century through innovative research and education programs that integrate experts from the public and private sectors.

About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked public university dedicated to research, scholarship and community. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with approximately 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,300 faculty members. The third-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3 billion.
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