5MSP Daily Update 4

(Thursday 18 September 2003 Bangkok, Thailand) Thursday 18 September 2003: informal consultations on Victim Assistance and on Mine Clearance and Related Activities

Full reports and statements:

• Official report on today’s proceedings
• ICBL Speeches and Interventions from today:
  • Victim Assistance Working Group presentation by Sheree Bailey (coming soon)
  • Mine Action Working Group presentation by Sara Sekkenes and Shohab Hakimi
  • Mine Risk Education Working Group presentation by Habbouba Aoun and Stan Brabant

Key discussions today

• General Exchange of Views (continued from previous day);
• Victim assistance and socio-economic reintegration;
• Mine clearance, mine risk education and related activities.

Victim Assistance

Highlights for the ICBL:

• The Croatian co-chair praised the linking of landmines to the idea of human security.
• The Nicaraguan delegate announced that there has been no incident involving landmines for over a year now.
• The Japanese delegate made a passionate call to pay attention to not only the landmine issue but to the "overall socio-economic conditions" of the countries affected by landmines. The delegate also called for the redoubling of efforts on this front.
• According to the ICRC delegate stated that a child victim of landmines will need 25 prosthesis over his/her life. The delegate stated that we will have to ensure that children have access to prostheses over their lifetime. She called on donors to continue providing funding for rehabilitation.

Mine Clearance

Highlights for the ICBL:

• The further implementation of aspects of the Convention as they relate to Article 5, in making rights and obligations known throughout all administrative levels in mine-affected countries and among all actors in Mine Action.

Areas of concern for the ICBL:

• That many mine-affected States Parties will most likely have problems meeting the deadline set out in Article 5.
• Too many mine-affected countries are reporting no mine risk education programs.

Quote of the day:

"Much still remains to be done," Sara Sekkenes, ICBL Mine Action Working Group.