Regional Workshops in the Lead-Up to the Cartagena Summit

Campaigners Join African Experts on Landmines in Pretoria

ICBL campaigners joined the Third Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines in Pretoria, South Africa from 9-11 September 2009, to conduct advocacy and outreach in support of the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The conference brought together 30 African states and was the fourth in a series of regional meetings convened in the lead-up to the Cartagena Summit. Four of our key African campaigners actively participated in the event including Ayman Sorour (Protection, Egypt), Boubine Toure (ICBL Senegal), Margaret Arach Orech (Uganda Landmine Survivors Association) and Robert Mtonga (Zambia Campaign to Ban Landmines), as well as Stan Brabant from Handicap International Belgium, an ICBL Management Committee member. In a press release issued on the opening day, the ICBL called on all African states to step up their efforts towards ridding the continent of landmines and fully respecting the rights of landmine survivors.

“The ICBL does not underrate the enormity of the remaining tasks ahead of Africa. We propose that these challenges serve as a point of departure towards the desired dawn when we all shall walk the African soil in safety,” said Robert Mtonga when addressing the conference on the second day. “We are convinced that, at the Cartagena Summit, Africa will speak with one big voice and hopefully be heard with one ear by the rest of the world.” More than half of the African states are contaminated with mines or explosive remnants of war. With only four states not party to the Mine Ban Treaty, the continent has one of the world’s highest adherence rates.

A Mine-Free South-Eastern Europe: Mission Possible

Prosthesis and rehabilitation center at the Kukes Regional Hospital. Photo: T. Gabelnick

The fifth and last of the series of regional meetings setting the scene for the Cartagena Summit was held in Albania, from 7-9 October 2009.

The Tirana Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free South-Eastern Europe focused on clearance of mined areas, victim assistance, cooperation in the region, as well as challenges for joining the treaty. It also included a visit to Kukes, the mine-affected region in northern Albania, to see the new prosthetics workshop and rehabilitation center at the Kukes Regional Hospital.

For the purposes of this workshop the region was defined to include the Balkan states plus Greece, Turkey, and the countries of the Southern Caucasus. Government representatives from 17 countries attended the workshop, including eight from the region. The ICBL delegation was comprised of campaigners and victim assistance experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Serbia, and Kosovo. ICBL member DanChurchAid, who has been the sole mine action operator in Albania in recent years, also actively participated in the meeting. Handicap International Belgium and ALB-AID organized a launch of the report on victim assistance, Voices from the Ground.

“The overview in this region is generally positive, with solid progress made by many states, especially our host, Albania. But there remain huge challenges to overcome, especially in the areas of mine clearance in some countries that are among the most heavily contaminated by antipersonnel mines in the world,” said Ramiz Becirovic of Landmine Survivors Initiative Bosnia & Herzegovina.