States Parties 161 States Not Party 36
Healing Land, Healing Lives
- Sustained Civil Society Action Against Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) calls for:
The ICBL's role is to support civil society efforts to ban landmines. We monitor compliance with the global norm prohibiting mine use. We create and disseminate landmine-related resources to campaigners. We provide a forum for civil society to come together and exchange information and ideas and take action against mines. The ICBL coordinates civil society-based initiatives against landmines and facilitates the work of campaigners around the world.
The ICBL is an advocacy coalition with 1400 member organizations working in over 90 countries.
The ICBL’s Coordinating Committee is composed of 13 member organizations who help oversea the ICBL’s activities and actions.
The ICBL channels work on thematic issues through four Working Groups.
A six-person staff based in five countries carries out the day-to-day work of the campaign.
This Annual Report covers the activities of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) for the year 2002. This year was an exciting and productive one for the ICBL. The coalition continued to grow and strengthen, but most importantly, the adherence to the Convention banning antipersonnel mines increased and the new international norm against these inherently indiscriminate weapons is indeed increasingly taking hold.
The ICBL's unprecedented civil society monitoring system, the Landmine Monitor, documented in its Landmine Monitor Report 2002 some of the successes of this treaty, which four years ago entered into force more quickly than any other treaty of its kind in history. Some 30 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed. The trade in antipersonnel mines has virtually halted, and the number of countries producing the weapon has dropped from more than 50 to almost a dozen. Vast tracts of land have been cleared and programs for mine action and victim assistance have expanded. Mine use has decreased worldwide, as has, most importantly, the number of new victims each year. But the ICBL is about more than landmines. As Ambassador Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Co-laureate said,
“the ICBL is not just about a global coalition which for the first time in history has banned a conventional weapon in widespread use and helped the victims of that weapon, as well as clearing the mines from the earth. It is also about a new civil society-based system to monitor an international treaty, which helps to ensure that the Mine Ban Treaty is obeyed and in so doing, helps strengthen the understanding of and
belief in the importance of international law.”
Our Cambodian Ambassadors Tun Channareth and Song Kosal also traveled Cambodia, Asia and the globe this year with their messages of banning landmines, restoring land to communities, and building a more peaceful planet. Tun Channareth called for a “10 out of 10” score for ASEAN, urging all ASEAN members to join the treaty by the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in Bangkok in September 2003, and Song Kosal encouraged thousands of youth worldwide to sign the Youth Against War treaty urging India and Pakistan to halt mine use and join the treaty.
Indeed, while some may have thought the job was done or members were fatigued, the ICBL and our member campaigns continued to prove our commitment remains steadfast. We engaged in an impressive amount of creative, dynamic activity throughout the year, around the world, from Afghanistan to Zambia. And we remain committed to finishing the job we started. We couldn’t do it without your support, thank you, and keep it up.
ICBL Ambassador Tun Channareth said that “while we have accomplished a lot already, much more remains to be done so our children can run and play freely, so no new people are mutilated by landmines, so all those already injured receive the assistance they need, so all the mines are removed and land restored to the people.”
We would not have achieved successes in the movement to ban landmines without the continued support of our members and donor partners. We would like to extend our gratitude to all campaign members for their invaluable in kind support, from office space to shipping costs to volunteer hours and so much more! We would also like to thank our donor partners for their kind and sustained support:
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) was founded in 1992 by six organizations: Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. One clear and simple goal brought them together: to ban landmines to ensure that no new mines would be planted in the ground and the existing mine problem was dealt with.
When the ICBL began its work:
The ICBL has grown to include 1400 organizations working in over 90 countries. We now know that:
Despite our accomplishments much work remains. We must:
The ICBL’s goal is a mine-free world. We have a targeted and strategic plan to help us meet this goal. At the Third ICBL General Meeting, held in March 2001 in Washington, DC, USA, the ICBL General Assembly adopted the 2004 Action Plan. This plan is a set of comprehensive regional and thematic goals, guiding campaign actions through the 2004 Mine
Ban Treaty Review Conference.
The plan helps to focus our energy, thinking and resources in the lead-up to the Review Conference. Our activities for 2002 were largely based on the priorities set out in this plan. In 2003 we will conduct a campaign-wide review of these priorities for the Fourth ICBL General Meeting, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, where we will adopt an updated Action Plan taking us up to and beyond the 2004 Review Conference.
We need your support as we get ever closer to the 2004 Review Conference to ensure that we can indeed meet the goals we have laid out for ourselves as a campaign. Please join our diverse coalition of human rights, mine clearance, humanitarian, children's, veterans', medical, development, arms control, religious, environmental, and women's groups working to eliminate landmines forever!
The 2004 Action Plan can be viewed online at www.icbl.org/info/actionplan/
Throughout 2002 campaigners worldwide took actions in their communities, capital cities and around the globe in support of the global ban on landmines. In addition, ICBL Working Groups on Mine Action, Non-State Actors, Treaty Issues and Victim Assistance channeled efforts to address all aspects of the global landmine crisis. It is impossible for this report to fully outline and give credit to all the events held by members of our network. Instead, we have tried to provide an overview of the major campaign events from the past year where the ICBL has assumed the primary coordination role.
Actions were taken in over 70 countries, from Afghanistan and Azerbaijan to Thailand and Tunisia. Our members promoted the landmines issue at the United Nations General Assembly, Special Session on Children and World Summit on Sustainable Development. They kept landmines on the agenda of the Arab League, Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), European Union, Francophonie, Group of Eight (G8), Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Organization of American State (OAS), Organization for African Unity (OAU), Rio Group and many other regional and international forums and organizations.
These actions and events helped to encourage Afghanistan, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all heavily mine-affected countries, to become States Parties to the Treaty. They supported treaty universalization in the Former Soviet Union and Middle East and North Africa, regions where many countries have yet to embrace the landmine ban. They helped to direct much needed funds to mine-affected states and reduce the number of new mine victims, and, most importantly, campaign actions helped to ensure that we make a difference in the lives of people living in mine-affected communities.
For more information about specific campaign events please refer to the ICBL Landmine Update, the ICBL’s Quarterly Newsletter, which provides a summary of some of these events. The Landmine Update is available online at www.icbl.org/update/landmines/
By 31 December 2002, 130 countries were States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. In 2002 three countries acceded to the Treaty: Afghanistan (11 September), Central African Republic (8 November) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2 May). In addition, four countries ratified the Treaty: Angola (5 July), Cameroon (19 September), Gambia (23 September) and Suriname (23 May).
The Intersessional Work Programme was established in 1999 to ensure systematic and effective implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. The Programme holds two weeklong sessions per year, the Intersessional Standing Committee (ISC) meetings, where governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other experts come together in Geneva, Switzerland, to have informal discussions on Mine Ban Treaty implementation. The Committees are tasked with providing a clear picture of needs, gaps, available resources and plans for advancing the humanitarian objectives of the Treaty. Four Standing Committees meet during the week: Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration; Mine Clearance, Mine Awareness and Mine Action Technologies; Stockpile Destruction; and, General Status and Operation of the Convention.
The 2002 ISC meetings were held from 28 January - 1 February and from 27-31 May at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). The ICBL worked with Standing Committee Co-Chairs and Co-Rapporteurs to help prepare their participation in these meetings. Dozens of ICBL campaigners participated in both meetings, held a media briefing and the Landmine Monitor and ICBL Regional Meetings for Europe and the Middle East and North Africa were held during the January meeting.
The ICBL made interventions in each Standing Committee on issues of concern and arranged side meetings and events with all government delegations. These meetings provided an opportunity to work with our partners to push the mines agenda forward with States Parties to the Treaty as well as countries not Party to the Treaty.
For more information please visit www.icbl.org/sc
The Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty (4MSP) was held from 16-20 September at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. This was by far the largest and most important landmines event of the year.
The Mine Ban Treaty requires that a Meeting of States Parties (MSP) be held once per year, with the venue alternating between the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and a mine-affected country. MSPs are official government meetings where States Parties, other governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations provide updates on their progress in implementing the Mine Ban Treaty over the past year. The ICBL has official observer status at these meetings and is involved in the planning process of the official meeting and all side-events along with our government partners.
143 ICBL campaigners and researchers representing 59 countries came to Geneva to
participate in this important meeting. All participants attended an ICBL orientation session as well as daily morning briefings. In addition to the official 4MSP meetings, campaigners participated in numerous regional and thematic meetings with government delegations. We also achieved our goal of meeting with every government delegation present at the meeting.
The ICBL issued statements and made interventions throughout the 4MSP. Outside the meeting room the ICBL generated considerable local and international press attention. In recognition of the increasingly important issue of mine use by non-state actors (NSAs), the Non-State Actors Working Group and Geneva Call sponsored a roundtable discussion on NSAs. Other side events included an information session on National Implementation Measures for the Mine Ban Treaty. Australian photographer John Rodsted showed Clearing the Path to Peace, an exhibition of recent photos taken in Afghanistan.
Throughout the week campaigners stressed the importance of universalizing the Treaty and ensuring that all States fully live up to their Treaty obligations. The conclusion of the 4MSP marked two years until the Mine Ban Treaty’s first Review Conference. The ICBL’s significant participation in the 4MSP clearly demonstrated the ICBL’s continued commitment to working for a landmine-free world as we move towards this important milestone.
The ICBL also compiled a 4MSP Report on Activities and distributed this report to campaigners and governments. For more information please visit www.icbl.org/4msp
Landmine Monitor is the ICBL’s civil-society based initiative that monitors compliance with the global norm against mine use established under the Mine Ban Treaty and evaluates progress in providing assistance to mine victims and mine action programs. This marks the first time that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have come together in a sustained and coordinated way to monitor and report on the implementation of an international disarmament or humanitarian law treaty. Its reports are viewed internationally as the baseline from which to analyze implementation of and compliance with the Treaty, and have received widespread acclaim from governments, the media and NGOs alike. The Fourth Landmine Monitor Report was released globally on 13 September and contains information on every country in the world with respect to landmine ban policy, use, production, transfer, stockpiling, mine clearance, mine awareness and survivor assistance. The report was prepared by 115 researchers in 90 countries who systematically collected and analyzed information from a wide variety of sources. The 2002 Report is available at www.icbl.org/lm/2002
Since the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force, mine use has declined rapidly. However, India and Pakistan, both non-signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty, defied the norm against mine use and planted over one million mines along their shared border in December 2001. This is perhaps the largest mine-laying operation of the past century. The ICBL quickly condemned the use of mines by both countries.
On 7 January, the ICBL issued a call to action against this mine use and sent letters to the governments of both countries. On 1 March, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty entry-into-force, the ICBL issued an Action Alert targeting India and Pakistan, urging both sides to refrain from using mines and to declare this publicly. States Parties to the Treaty were also urged to condemn this recent use, in line with their treaty obligations. Also in March, the ICBL urged Commonwealth
member countries to highlight the recent mine use by India and Pakistan at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In November the ICBL issued an action alert on Treaty Universalization in Asia as part of the Asia Appeal, which challenges countries in the region and other States Parties to push for Treaty universalization by the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. India and Pakistan (as well as Indonesia and Sri Lanka) were targeted in the action alert.
Youth Against War Treaty signatures were collected by youth around the world. These signatures will be handed over to the governments of India and Pakistan on 9 September 2003, encouraging both countries to take steps towards joining the Mine Ban Treaty.
The ICBL is committed to ensuring that all countries join the Mine Ban Treaty. With over 50 countries yet to become States Parties, we have much work ahead of us! We have a carefully prepared universalization strategy, which we update frequently based on Landmine Monitor research and consultation with our partners. We work with our campaign colleagues, regional and international organizations and governments in coordinated and concerted efforts to encourage countries to embrace the treaty. The ICBL is an active member of the Universalization Contact Group, which is a group of governments and international organizations who work together to promote Treaty universalization.
In the United States (US), the ICBL monitored the 2001 Bush Administration Review of Mine Ban Policy and created a web page at www.icbl.org/country/usa/ to bring together information about US mine ban policy and encourage actions to promote US treaty accession. Throughout 2002 campaigners were urged to send letters to the White House
and to visit their local embassies.
In advance of the G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, from 26-27 June, the ICBL urged G8 member states to use this forum as an opportunity to promote the treaty and raise concerns with the US and Russia. The ICBL sent letters to NATO member states in advance of the 21-22 November NATO Summit in Prague, asking member states to take action against any use of mines by a non-State Party in joint military operations.
In addition to the G8 action targeting Russia, the ICBL took other actions against mine use in the Former Soviet Union. 3 out of 12 countries in the region are not Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. The ICBL participated in “Banning antipersonnel mines: Cooperation and Capacity Building,” a conference organized by the Governments of Armenia and Canada and the OSCE, held from 1-2 October in Yerevan, Armenia. The conference explored the landmine situation in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and the practical implications of accession to the Treaty. The ICBL also participated in the Regional Conference on “Landmines and Explosives Remnants of War” organized by the ICRC and held from 4-5 November in Moscow, Russia.
The ICBL took action against mine use and supported treaty universalization in the Middle East and North Africa region, where 11 countries are mine-affected and only 5 out of 14 are party to the Treaty. The ICBL participated in a Regional Seminar on the Mine Ban Treaty organized by the Governments of Tunisia and Canada, held in Tunis from 15-16 January. The ICBL also sent letters to all Francophonie member states in the lead-up to the Ninth Francophonie Heads of States and Governments Summit, which took place in Beirut, Lebanon from 18-20 October.
The ICBL became increasingly concerned about mine use in any possible conflict in Iraq and called on the United States and Iraq to refrain from using mines. In
December the ICBL engaged in media outreach in the US and abroad, highlighting possible US use of mines in Iraq.
With a new administration in Afghanistan and renewed prospects for peace in the country, the conditions were present to push for a ban on landmines. Afghanistan is severely affected by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) and approximately 6-8 million mines, remnants of decades of conflict, contaminate the soil. The ICBL sent an open letter to the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance for Afghanistan, held from 20-21 January in Tokyo, Japan, to encourage support of the Mine Ban Treaty and immediate stockpile destruction.
The ICBL participated in and helped to organized “Building a Peaceful Future for Afghanistan: A Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines,” a conference hosted by the Afghan government and held in Kabul from 28-31 July. The Afghan Interim Administration announced its plans to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty at the opening of the conference. ICBL Ambassador Jody Williams welcomed this announcement, noting “It is a tribute to the new leadership of this country...Now is the time for change...We have no illusion that change will come quickly or easily...We will be with you until the battle is over.” The conference helped to galvanize local and international support for mine action and accession to the Mine Ban Treaty, and on 11 September, Afghanistan acceded to the Treaty. In addition to Afghanistan, two other heavily mined countries, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, became States Parties to the Treaty in 2002.
Joining the Mine Ban Treaty is not enough; States Parties must fully implement all of its provisions including destroying stockpiled mines within four years, clearing mined areas within ten years, submitting Article 7 transparency reports, enacting domestic legislation banning mines and providing technical, financial or other assistance to mine-affected countries. The ICBL works individually with States Parties to help ensure that they meet all of their Treaty obligations.
30 April 2003 marked the first major treaty deadline for the first countries to have become States Parties to the Treaty. Forty-five countries had to destroy their stockpiled mines by this deadline. Throughout 2002 the ICBL worked with these countries to remind them of their obligations and help to ensure that they could meet them. All 45 countries destroyed their stockpiles by the deadline. Many campaigners participated in stockpile destruction events in their countries. Please visit www.icbl.org/treaty/stockpiles/ for more information about ICBL participation in stockpile destruction events.
Under Article 7 of the Treaty, States Parties must submit initial and annual transparency reports detailing the mine problem in their country and what they are doing to meet their treaty obligations. In May, the ICBL sent letters to all countries with pending Article 7 deadlines, reminding them of their obligations under Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty. Follow-up was conducted on a country-by-country basis.
The ICBL embarked on a project to help states implement domestic legislation banning landmines. In order to make the Mine Ban Treaty enforceable domestically, all states must implement national legislation banning landmines.
This is crucial to ensuring that any future mine use can be dealt with through the use of penal sanctions. The ICBL drafted an advocacy manual for implementing domestic legislation and worked with colleagues at the ICRC to help provide States Parties with information about how to enact legislation. The ICBL also held a meeting with Anglophone African governments at the 4MSP about implementing legislation, and planned similar information meetings with States Parties in other regions for the next year.
The ICBL’s four thematic working groups are crucial in our efforts to ensure that the Mine Ban Treaty is fully implemented. These groups, covering Mine Action, Non-State Actors, Treaty Issues and Victim Assistance, are informal networks of campaigners who join together to share information and take focused actions to ensure that both States Parties and other actors fully implement all aspects of the
Treaty. The groups are chaired by experts in each field.
The Working Groups prepared and delivered interventions during the Intersessional Standing Committees and the 4MSP. They advocated for the rights of persons with disabilities and for effective mine clearance programs in the United Nations and other forums. They helped to set guidelines and standards, circulated information and ensured that much needed actions were taken on their areas of focus. They helped to channel civil society input into decision-making on these topics.
1 March marked the third anniversary of the entry-into-force of the Mine Ban Treaty. On this day the ICBL issued a press release and action alert themed around the recent use of mines in India and Pakistan. Campaigns around the world, from Australia to the UK, marked this occasion by holding awareness-raising events and lobbying against the use of mines in India and Pakistan. The ICBL also sent letters to the Foreign Ministers of States Parties and enclosed a copy of the ICBL report on the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Research Institute, Norwegian People’s Aid and the Norwegian Red Cross, with support from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized “The Future of Humanitarian Mine Action,” an international conference held in Oslo from 12-14 September. The conference aimed to establish a platform for future policy and practice based on the lessons learned in mine action over the past five years. The conference focused on field-based mine action projects as a component of broader humanitarian assistance efforts, peace-building initiatives, and longer-term development programs. ICBL staff and members from around the world participated in this event.
3 December marked the fifth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Mine Ban Treaty. The ICBL issued a press release on this historic date, hailing successes achieved to date and calling on states and NSAs to embrace the emerging international norm rejecting mine use. Events were held worldwide and included a series of events in Ottawa, Canada, the city that hosted the 1997 Ottawa Conference where the Treaty was opened for signature.
A series of regional and global meetings are held each year in preparation of the Landmine Monitor Report. These meetings are designed to help prepare the report, strengthen research and advocacy skills and provide an opportunity for actions including public events and press conferences in the host country. In preparation for the 2002 Landmine Monitor Report, the Europe and
Middle East/ North Africa ICBL and Landmine Monitor Regional Meetings were held in Geneva, Switzerland during the
January ISC meetings.
The Global Landmine Monitor Researchers Meeting was held in April in Paris, France. Ninety researchers took part in this week-long series of internal research
meetings, advocacy training sessions and public events.
Regional meetings to prepare the 2003 Landmine Monitor Report began in October. ICBL members from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region of the former Soviet Union met in Baku, Azerbaijan from 7-9 November to discuss their research, participate in a field visit to Horadiz, Fizuli region, and lobby Azerbaijan to join the Mine Ban Treaty. In December, campaigners and researchers from Africa met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss their research, hone their advocacy skills, participate in a field visit to a mine-affected area and participate in events encouraging Ethiopia to become a Party to the Treaty. Meetings for other regions are scheduled for 2003.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held from 2-5 March in Coolum, Queensland, Australia. The ICBL sent letters to the Foreign Ministers of all Commonwealth states before the meeting, encouraging them to raise the mines issue in their public addresses and interventions, draft and support strongly worded text on mines in the final declaration, and raise the issue in their bilateral meetings, particularly with signatories and non-signatories. The ICBL also urged member states to condemn India and Pakistan for their recent use of mines and encourage them to join the Mine Ban Treaty. The Coolum Communique adopted at the end of the meeting included a short paragraph on landmines.
Raising the Voices (RTV) is an initiative of the ICBL Working Group on Victim Assistance and Landmine Survivors Network. The program brings landmine survivors to the ISC meetings and the annual MSPs. In addition to participating in the officials meetings and side events, participants go through a training program, which serves to build their capacity to advocate on behalf of other survivors and person with disabilities both within the meetings and processes of the
Mine Ban Treaty and in their home countries. Upon returning home, participants undertook advocacy and awareness projects in their communities themed around landmines and disability rights. RTV trained 13 African survivors.
On 13 September in Oslo, Norway, the ICBL launched its new Sponsor a Mine-Detection Dog Program. The program is designed to support member organizations using specially trained dogs to help detect mines. During 2002 the money raised from the program supported Norwegian People’s Aid’s dog program in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ICBL created a program website at www.sponsor-a-minedog.org and developed an information brochure.
The ICBL works closely with UN partners including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs (UNDDA). The ICBL participated in meetings and forums with all these bodies throughout the year to ensure that they included strong Mine Ban Treaty advocacy in their programmatic work and to advocate for appropriate, effective and sustained mine action projects. The ICBL Mine Action Working Group and its sub-group on Mine Risk Education, composed of numerous field practitioners and relevant agencies, coordinates ICBL input and collaboration with our
relevant UN partners.
In all our campaign activities we worked with our coalition partners, and they in turn worked in collaboration with each other to organize numerous advocacy events around the world.
On behalf of the ICBL, the Brazilian Campaign to Ban Landmines participated in the World Social Forum, held from 23-28 January in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Campaign members hosted a photo exhibition, information table and collected signatures for the Youth Against War Treaty. Campaign members also delivered a presentation during the “for a society without arms” seminar.
Human Rights Watch spoke on behalf of the ICBL at the OAS Hemispheric Security Commission Session on landmines in Washington, DC, USA on 14 March. The discussion included the work of the OAS in mine action, working towards a mine-free hemisphere by 2004 and presentations by member states.
ICBL Ambassador Jody Williams addressed “A Disarmament Agenda for the 21sth Century,” a conference held from 2-4 April in Beijing, China, and co-hosted by the United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In May, the ICBL participated in a workshop on the Mine Ban Treaty and Action Against Landmines in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), co-hosted by the Governments of the DRC and Canada. Also in May, ICBL members traveled to Bangkok, Thailand to participate in the Landmines in South East Asia Conference hosted by the Royal Thai Government with support from the Governments of Australia, Canada and Japan. The ICBL also participated in a seminar on implementation measures for the Ottawa Convention in Croatia in October.
In celebration of the 2002 FIFA World Cup soccer events in Japan and Korea in June, the Japanese and Korean Campaigns to Ban Landmines organized “A Goal for All!” Citizens were asked to write a peace message or draw an illustration to show “solidarity as friends of this Earth by addressing a message from the bottom of your heart to those injured by landmines.”
The ICBL continued to work to increase the capacity of campaigns worldwide to integrate youth as full participants in their work, as well as to increase the capacity of young people to take action against landmines in their communities.
The Youth Against War Treaty signature campaign was launched this year with targets in South Asia. Signatures are being collected by youth around the world to send to the governments of India and Pakistan in September 2003, showing both countries that the youth of the world are against landmine use.
The ICBL participated in the United Nations Special Session on Children, which was held from 8-10 May in New York City, US, and, together with UNICEF, the Quaker UN Office and other partners organized Taking Charge! Youth Action Planning on Landmines and Small Arms, a youth workshop held 8 May.
The ICBL held Transformaciones: Trabajando con la juventud por un planeta libre de minas/ Working with Youth for a Mine-free World, a one-week Latin American youth seminar held 16-22 November in Santiago, Chile. The objectives of the seminar were to increase participants’ knowledge of the landmines issue and the campaign, share experiences with their peers, enhance leadership, organizing and campaigning skills and to create a network of youth campaigners in the Americas. In addition to attending training sessions, the participants also applied their knowledge by writing a press release, preparing and delivering a presentation to the Instituto de Ecología Política International Seminar on humanitarian action against landmines in the Americas, wrote individual action plans, and formed a youth network, including setting up mechanisms to maintain
communication.
The ICBL regularly distributed news and information of interest to youth campaigners, including several youth action alerts, encouraging Yugoslavia to join the Mine Ban Treaty and promoting the Youth Against War Treaty. The Youth Action Forum website was regularly maintained and updated with new information, and the Youth Campaign Kit was added to the website and can now be downloaded in English, French and Spanish at http://www.icbl.org/youth/resources/youthkit.html#download
Producing and distributing campaign materials to facilitate campaign action has always been an important part of the ICBL’s work. Throughout 2002 the ICBL implemented a Resource Center transition plan to decentralize and make resources easily available to campaigners throughout the world. The stand-alone Resource Center in Sana’a, Yemen was closed in December, and in its place is a network of regional and thematic focal points that can respond to resource requests from campaigns and the public. For example, if someone in Indonesia would like to order campaign resources, rather than processing their request from Yemen, the Thai Campaign to Ban Landmines, the Asia focal point, will be able to respond and provide linguistically and culturally appropriate materials.
The ICBL published updated campaign tools such as the Campaign Kit, now available in several languages, as well as a new booklet on fundraising. New brochures, stickers, pins, caps, and other materials were developed. The ICBL issued an activity report on the 4MSP and published the quarterly Landmine Update newsletter. The ICBL continued to make documents, photographs, videos and other material available and improved access to its online resource tools.
The ICBL relies heavily on the Internet to distribute information, share resources and communicate our message to the world. Throughout 2002 the ICBL worked to make online tools and services more user-friendly.
News items were regularly updated on the homepage at www.icbl.org. Separate pages were created for the 4MSP ( www.icbl.org/4msp) and the 2002 Landmine Monitor Report ( www.icbl.org/lm/2002/). Individual country pages were created to highlight key countries of concern and universalization targets at www.icbl.org/tools/databases/country. Each page includes information and links to important documents about the landmine situation in each country, as well as actions people can take. Other pages
were updated regularly.
The Index on Landmines ( www.icbl.org/index), an online database of text, audiovisual and web resources, was updated and re-organized to make it more efficient. The Image Library ( www.icbl.org/imagelibrary), the ICBL’s online photo database, was updated to include a new, user-friendlier tool. ICBL contact and government databases were put online to make this information available to campaigners and the public. The Landmine Research Start page ( www.icbl.org/startpage) was updated and improved. This page gathers relevant information together to help Landmine Monitor researchers carry out their work more efficiently. The ICBL created a web page for the new Sponsor a Mine-Detection Dog program at www.sponsor-a-minedog.org.
In addition, the ICBL worked with Japanese youth campaigners to create the Japanese youth website at www.icbl.org/youth/jp. Non-English ICBL websites were set up in Arabic ( www.arabic.icbl.org) and Portuguese ( www.portuguese.icbl.org). The ICBL also supported campaigns as they created country pages on the ICBL server such as www.australia.icbl.org.
The ICBL also trained numerous campaigners on how to use online tools and computer software programs as campaign resources. As well as website resources, the ICBL also regularly provided campaigns with updated information via email distribution lists. A newsletter web page was updated at www.icbl.org/newsletter/.
Statement of Recorded Cash Receipts and Disbursements
Year Ended 31 December 2002
The 2002 ICBL Independent Audit was completed by Tate & Tryon. The full report is available as a separate download. The following excerpt is taken from their report:
