Intersessional Daily Update 2

(Tuesday 04 February 2003 Geneva, Switzerland) The Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration met for a full day.

France (Ambassador Gerard Chesnel) and Colombia (Mme. Fulvia Benavides), the two co-chairs of this Standing Committee, started the session with remarks about the status of implementation of victim assistance globally. The two Co-Rapporteurs are Australia (Peter Truswell) and Croatia (Toma Galli). Ambassador Chesnel of France remarked that forty-three countries require assistance, in particular with psycho-social rehabilitation. He noted that while deadlines exist for mine clearance and stockpile destruction, victim assistance does not have deadlines, and indeed, is needed throughout the lifetime of each survivor.

During the overview of the Status of Implementation of Article 6.3, Becky Jordan, Co-Chair of the ICBL’s Working Group on Victim Assistance (WGVA) issued a statement on behalf of the working group. She noted that it is unknown exactly how much progress has been made with regard to survivor assistance, but that data collection is improving and we have a greater level of detail now than in the past. Six indicators to measure the quality of victim assistance were noted: Information on mine victims demographics and needs is available; National coordination mechanism exists and recognizes mine victims; Medical care and rehabilitation; Social and economic reintegration; Laws and policies; and, Organizations of persons with disabilities and community advisory networks. She used Afghanistan and Angola as case studies to show how these indicators have changed from 1998 to the present in both countries. Jordan noted that this system of using graded indicators will be continued in the future. The governments of Canada and South Africa made interventions after the WGVA presentation.

The following states issued statements about national implementation of victim assistance: Afghanistan, Albania, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Laos DPR, Namibia, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Thailand and Zambia.

Margaret Arach Orech, Co-Chair of the ICBL’s WGVA, commented that the countries with the most victims are also the poorest countries and said that Cambodia’s multi-sectoral approach to victim assistance is important. “We must have policies of inclusion,” stated Arach Orech, “and we must make efficient use of sparse resources.”

A highlight of the discussions was a presentation by the six participants in the WGVA’s Raising the Program, which succeeded in re-focusing the meeting on the need for effective survivor assistance programming. Four survivors from Thailand and two survivors from Laos DPR told the meeting about their personal experiences as landmine survivors. They issued a joint statement, urging governments to “promote persons with disabilities’ participation in the workplace.” They also encouraged assistance to ensure the success of projects run by persons with disabilities, asked for support in establishing self-help groups, and urged policies and laws to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Russian National Amputee Hockey Federation introduced some of its members, who were injured by landmines during military service in Afghanistan, and explained the importance of sports as part of psycho-social rehabilitation and reintegration of survivors. The team played on Saturday, 1 February against the Geneva Servettes during intermission. Efforts are currently underway to make amputee standing hockey an official sport in the Paralympics.

Phillip Coggan of Handicap International opened the general exchange of views on regional efforts by discussing the regional victim assistance program for South East Asia, an action plan that came out of the 6-8 November 2002 Handicap International Technical Regional Conference on Victim Assistance in South East Asia, held in Bangkok, Thailand. The goal of the project is to assist local actors in determining their needs, priorities and drawing up national plans. He provided an update on progress made in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The results of this project will be reported to the 5MSP.

Sheree Bailey of Landmine Monitor delivered a presentation on resource mobilization for victim assistance. She illustrated how from 1999-2001, funding for victim assistance projects represented an average of 11% of mine action funding. While a few States Parties maintained strong support for victim assistance programs – Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy and Norway – other States Parties such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland did not. Over a three-year period, victim assistance funding has remained static, while the number of victims has increased. “The challenge ahead,” said Bailey, “is for mine-affected States to listen to landmine survivors and other actors, to identify the gaps in mine victim assistance, to formulate a national plan of action; to assess the resources required to implement the plan of action; to make known their needs, and for donor States to provide resources to assist mine-affected States in meeting those needs.”

Interventions were made by: Australia, Canada, European Commission, GICHD, Handicap International, Hungary, ICBL WGVA, Japan, Norway, the Slovenian International Trust Fund and Sweden.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) spoke about two new initiatives. In the past UNMAS has entered all the information from the ICBL’s WGVA Portfolio on Victim Assistance into their E-Mine system. UNMAS will now be in charge of updating the Portfolio of Victim Assistance and adding it to their E-Mine system. In addition, UNMAS has also received funding from Japan through the fund for Human Security. This funding will be used to support two victim assistance projects in South East Asia.

At the close of the session, the Colombian Co-chair emphasized the importance of psycho-social reintegration and exchanging information on a regular basis to see identify problems and then rapidly develop strategies and procure resources to solve these problems. She urged donor countries to move forward from the stagnation in funding. The French Co-chair echoed the other Co-Chair’s comments and stated that few Latin American and African countries took the opportunity to speak during the meeting, and he was encouraged that Colombia, Ecuador, Rwanda, Angola, Niger and Mauritania and other countries have already indicated that they will take the floor at the May 2003 Intersessional Standing Committee meetings.