Liz Bernstein served as Coordinator of the ICBL from March 1998 through January 2005 and has been involved with the campaign since it began in the early 1990s.
Liz during the Seventh Meeting of States Parties. Geneva, September 2006.
Liz first became involved with the ICBL in the early 1990s when she was working on the Thai-Cambodian border where landmines were pervasive. She was engaged in peace and reconciliation work, but quickly realized that nothing could be done in Cambodia without addressing the landmine issue. When forced to march through mined areas by the Khmer Rouge to meet their commander during a peace walk, the indiscriminate nature of landmines really hit home. As Liz says about a young Khmer Rouge solder she met during this experience: He would then have to decide to hurt me or not, but if I stepped on a mine, whether he or someone else had planted it, then or years ago, [there would be] no choice or decision in terms of target. It was completely indiscriminate.
Liz helped launch the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines and also participated in the hosting of the Phnom Penh conference in 1995, which was the first ICBL conference in a mine-affected country. In early 1998, when Jody Williams stepped down as coordinator of the ICBL, Liz took up the position. During the crucial years after the signing of the treaty, Liz ensured that the ICBL remained focused on the importance of the implementation and universalization of the treaty, as well as the need to build and strengthen the ever-growing campaign.
Liz at the Oslo Negotiations in September 1996.
Liz hopes that through her new role as an ICBL Ambassador, she will further the goals of the ICBL and inspire other movements by sharing the lessons and successes of the ICBL. For the years ahead, Liz believes that there remains work to be done: It is simply crucial to get the job done [
] for landmines survivors and people living with landmines.
We have to continue to fight and insist on our right to have civil society involved in discussions and negotiations on issues of concern to all of us on the planet, and we can only use the landmines example of successful government-NGO partnership if we truly succeed and turn the words into reality!
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