John Heathers

Having had a lifelong interest in the use of explosives and weapons John Heathers retired in 2003 after a 30 year engineering career with Telstra and joined SafeGround (formally the Australian Network to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions) in Sydney in 2004.

Wishing to do something practical in retirement he worked with an NGO interested in ridding the world of landmines for 11 years, while over that time visiting minefields in a number of Asian countries. In December 2008 he had the wonderful experience of being present in Oslo as a peoples’ representative when the Cluster Munitions Treaty was signed by Australia and 92 other countries; and has worked since on the Universalisation of both the Landmines and the Cluster Munitions Treaties.

While acknowledging that regrettably the scourge of landmines, cluster bombs and explosive remnants of war is still widespread, John wishes to concentrate on campaigning for the removal of ERW in the Pacific Islands region because of the immediacy of the ecological risks and personal dangers for certain Pacific Island nationals involved in allowing existing conditions to continue.