Intersessional Daily Update 1

(Monday 03 February 2003 Geneva, Switzerland) Opening and Standing Committee (SC) on General Status and Operation

The intersessional Standing Committees were established to help maintain international interest in the AP mine ban issue, as well as to maintain momentum and regularly mark, measure and stimulate progress in the comprehensive implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

In keeping with the tradition of flexibility, a hallmark of the Ottawa Process, the intersessional work programme has again been adjusted to meet the needs of the Convention, by organizing the week “as a whole package” to most effectively address the challenges in our goal of achieving a MineFree World by 2009. There will be two days of the Standing Committee (SC) on General Status and Operation of the Convention (SC-GSOC) to begin the week on Monday and end the week on Friday. The SC on Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration will be held on Tuesday, the SC on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Mine Action Technologies will meet on Wednesday and the SC on Stockpile Destruction will be held on Thursday.

The ICBL will hold daily morning meetings with the Campaigners, Landmine Monitor Researchers and landmine survivors attending intersessional week. There are over 70 ICBLers attending from at least 44 countries this time including Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Laos, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Yemen and Yugoslavia. Monday’s campaigners meeting served to introduce all attending, brief campaigners on the ISC week and to discuss ICBL’s lobbying priorities and determine who would meet with each country throughout the week.

The intersessional week began with a Briefing for New Participants, a tradition started in May 2002, to help orient and inform all delegates attending the intersessional Standing Committees for the first time. It was presided over by the 4MSP President, Ambassador Jean Lint of Belgium. A panel of 4 speakers gave an overview of the Mine Ban Treaty and its key obligations and implementation mechanisms; practical information for the week; and the role of the ICBL and its member NGOs to the work of the Convention and the intersessional work programme. Presentations were by Peter Herby, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Gustavo Laurie, Peru and Co-Chair of the SC-GSOC; Kerry Brinkert, Manager of the Implemenation Support Unit; and Susan B. Walker, ICBL Intersessional Programme Officer (ICBL statement follows this update). Hundreds of delegates, new and old, attended the briefing, which was found to be very useful to give an overview of what the intersessional programme strives to do.

Ambassador Jean Lint and Ambassador Martin Dahinden, Director of the GICHD, welcomed participants and gave opening remarks before turning it over to the SC-GSOC Co-Chairs, Ambassador Wolfgang Petrisch of Austria and Gustavo Laurie of Peru. Ambassador Lint stated that the intersessionals should be considered “as a whole which will address the political, humanitarian, mine action and victim assistance aspects of the Convention”. He wished everyone “a very active and very rich week in our fight against antipersonnel mines”.

Monday’s agenda for the Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention included:

1. Overview of general status of implementation (Amb. Lint);
2. Overview of general status of universalization (Shannon Smith, Canada);
3. Mobilizing resources to achieve the Convention’s humanitarian aims (Knut Langeland, Norway); and
4. Matters pertaining to the general operations of the Convention (Coordinating Committee, GICHD and ISU, Sponsorship Programme).

The agenda item on Article 7 was moved to Friday’s SC-GSOC session, due to the length of the discussion on the Resource Mobilization Contact Group, which was met with enthousiastic support and numerous interventions from the floor.

In opening the Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Ambassador Petrisch informed participants that although he is new to the ISC work in Geneva, he has first-hand experience of the devastating effects of antipersonnel mines having spent the past three years as the United Nations High Commissioner in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as having served as the EU’s Special Envoy during the war. He said that Bosnia-Herzegovina is still heavily mined and the problems caused by mines make the transition to peace difficult. Amb. Petrisch stated, “The Mine Ban Convention is the Framework for Bosnia-Herzegovina and all mine-affected countries in the world to deal with this humanitarian problem, to finally get rid of this horrible weapon and to make sure that people will no longer suffer from antipersonnel mines.”

Ambassador Jean Lint then gave an overview of the general status of implementation since the 4MSP in September 2002, based on the objectives outlined in the 4MSP President’s Action Programme. He began by addressing the core humanitarian objectives of clearing mined land, destroying stockpiles, victim assistance and universalization. On clearing mined land, he congratulated Costa Rica on becoming the first Latin American country to declare themselves mine-free and stated that there are 44 mine-affected States Parties. On APM stockpiles, he highlighted that 1 March 2003 marks the first deadline for 45 States Parties obligated to have destroyed their stockpiles and that we are “certainly on the right track” to achieve that. [During discussion, Chad announced that it had completed its stockpile destruction days before coming to Geneva, which was met with applause.] On victim assistance, he reminded participants that all States Parties have a commitment to help victims and that this commitment is for the whole life of the victims. On universalization, Cyprus was congratulated for ratifying on 17 January 2003, becoming the 131st country to join the Convention. Amb. Lint also congratulated Gambia and the Central African Republic for having ratified and acceded since the 4MSP. He stated that Greece has already ratified domestically, that Turkey had promised to begin accession procedures soon, that ratification is on a good track in Lithuania and E. Timor is currently completing its accession process.

With the core humanitarian objectives as outlined in the President’s Action Programme stated above, Amb. Lint then gave examples of some actions being taken to achieve them including:

1. Exchange of information at the intersessionals;
2. Article 7 transparency reports: an improved “user friendly” UNDDA website for Article 7 reports;
   submission of 103 initial Article 7 reports, with 21 being late and that Lithuania, a Signatory, had voluntarily submitted an Article 7 report. [The “21 late reports” became “19” by the end of the day, as Tajikistan and Djibouti provided copies of their Article 7 report to Amb. Lint];
3. Mobilising Resources: at the 4MSP, Norway made a clear commitment to maintain their level of funding in the future ($100 million for 1997-2002) and Canada made the same commitment in December 2002 on the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Convention (CD $80 million over the next five years. This is a decrease from their 1997 pledge of CD $100 million, but does not include Research & Development monies.). The newly established Resource Mobilization Contact Group, initiated and chaired by Norway, was welcomed.
4. Regional approaches: several examples were given of regional meetings and consultations in Croatia, the CIS, Belarus and Ukraine (re PFMs) and a meeting of Central African countries in Brussels (re Art. 7). This has proven to be a useful approach to promoting acceptance and implementation of the Convention.
5. Actions to promote univeresalization: the establishment of the Bangkok Regional Action Group in Geneva was welcomed and its aim is to promote universalization in the Asia-Pacific region prior to the 5MSP in Thailand. The annual UN Resolution on the Mine Ban Convention introduced by Belgium, Nicaragua and Thailand had a record number of co-sponsors (123 States Parties, 11 Signatories and 6 non-Signatories), with the final vote at the UNGA being 143 “yes”, 0 “no” and 23 abstentions. Many other initiatives are being undertaken as well, with one example being Belgium contacting capitals of “soon to be EU members” to urge them to join the Convention.

Paul Hannon of Mines Action Canada then gave an energizing and excellent power point slide show on the 5th Annniversary of the signing of the Convention seminar held in Ottawa on 30 Nov and 1 December. The seminar addressed the “Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead”. Paul’s report was an upbeat and positive one stating that the “successs to date give us the confidence and guidance to continue that success.” Some conclusions included the need to enhance and support mine-affected countries in their planning to implement the Convention; that the Intersessional Work Programme has been key to the success to date and that it is the key for continued success; that mine action activities should be mainstreamed and that youth activities should be increased.

Amb. Petrisch thanked both of them for their presentations which “set the scene for the intersessional week with an upbeat note that this crisis is manageable”.

Interventions from the floor during discussion included UNMAS (on behalf of the “UN family” involved in mine action), Cyprus, ICBL and Chad. Steve Goose, Chair of the ICBL’s Treaty Working Group, offered congratulations to Costa Rica. He thanked Amb. Lint and Paul Hannon for their presentations and stated that there is, indeed, a lot of very good and encouraging news and impressive progress being made in the implementation of the Convention, which is a prime example of an international instrument dealing with disarmament or humanitarian concerns that is working and making a real difference on the ground where it counts. He stressed the fact that is not only the implementation of the Convention by States Parties that is good news, but also the degree to which the Convention is becoming the international norm, as even many of those who remain outside the Convention are abiding by its standards. Steve said, however, we cannot be complacent as there remain 90 mine-affected countries and 15-20,000 new mine victims per years. That allegations of or use of APMs undermines the norm. He also stressed the importance of meeting the stockpile destruction deadlines, of submitting Article 7 reports (as mine-affected countries would more easily benefit from assistance), of Article 9 legislation (only 25% of States Parties have national implementing legislation), of ensuring the readiness of States Parties if Article 8 had to be operationalized and of resource mobilization. He concluded by saying that ICBL would like to see continued progress being made in reaching common understandings on Articles 1, 2 and 3 in the lead-up to the 5MSP in Bangkok and the following year.

The agenda item on general status of Universalization was introduced by Shannon Smith, Canada, as Chair of the Universalization Contact Group. A panel with speakers from Austria, Thailand and the ICBL then presented the use of regional and other forums to promote universalization. Sylvie Brigot, ICBL’s Government Relations Officer, presented ICBL’s universalization efforts worldwide and included an explanation of the “Asia Appeal” launched in November to promote universalization in the Asia-Pacific region prior to the 5MSP in Bangkok.

Discussion followed and interventions were made by Cyprus, the OAS, Geneva Call, Paul Hannon of Mines Action Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the Central African Republic, UNICEF and Italy.

The afternoon session was Chaired by Gustavo Laurie of Peru and began with the agenda item: “Mobilizing resources to achieve the Convention’s humanitarian aims”. Knut Langeland of Norway presented the genesis and aims of the newly established Resource Mobilization Contact Group being Chaired by Norway. This was followed by panel presentations by Peru, Croatia, Canada and Norway in which they spoke about their respective countries’ approach to the issue of resource mobilization. The critical importance of mobilizing resources for the implementation of the Convention was stressed by all, for “without resources, there can be no action.” UNMAS also presented their Mine Action Portfolio and E-mine database of projects.

An energetic discussion followed, with 14 interventions from the floor: Thailand, Nicaragua, Sweden, Mozambique, ICBL (Susan B. Walker), South Africa, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, Djibouti, UNDP, EC, Niger and Bangladesh. All speakers thanked Norway and welcomed the establishment of the Resource Mobilisation Contact Group (RMCG). ICBL pledged its active engagement in the work of the RMCG, as well as in countries around the world where we have campaigns to maintain international interest in the issue, with the goal of ensuring that the necessary resources will be provided.

Given the length of the discussion, the Article 7 agenda item was moved to Friday.

The day ended with the agenda item: “Matters pertaining to the general operations of the Convention” where updates were given on the work of the Coordinating Committee (Amb. Jean Lint, CC Chair and 4MSP President), GICHD (Amb. Martin Dahinden), the Implementation Support Unit (Kerry Brinkert, Manager of the ISU) and the Sponsorship Programme (John Wattam, UK and Coordinator of the Sponsorship Programme).

Susan B. Walker
ICBL Intersessional Programme Officer