Author(s):
Site Admin <webmaster2@icbl.org> .
Friday 27 February 2009
From 23 to 26 February, ICBL campaigners from 12 countries across the Americas met in the Nicaraguan capital on the occasion of the “Managua Workshop on Progress and Challenges towards a Mine-Free Americas.”
Jesús Martínez, Director of the Survivor Network Foundation, and Sylvie Brigot, ICBL Executive Director, address the media. Photo: M. Wareham
Hosted by the government of Nicaragua and opened to governments and civil society representatives from throughout the region, the workshop was the first regional preparatory meeting for the Mine Ban Treaty’s Second Review Conference.
ICBL activities kicked off on 23 February with a victim assistance workshop, attended by landmine survivors from Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and
Peru, and a press conference attended by national media and foreign correspondents. Presentations included an introduction on the Mine Ban Treaty’s tenth anniversary by ICBL Executive Director Sylvie Brigot, an overview of the landmine situation in the region by Landmine Monitor researcher and editor Megan
Burke, a presentation of the problem in Nicaragua by Brenda Tapia from Handicap International, and a personal testimony from Salvadoran landmine survivor
Jesús Martínez. The press conference was well covered in media across Central America.
In the course of the week, ICBL members attended the official workshop, making presentations and lobbying government delegates on landmine and cluster-related issues. As part of the ICBL “1 March Action Alert” they visited the embassies of Cuba and the United States – the last two countries in the Americas not to have joined the Mine Ban Treaty – and held a briefing with students from a local university.
Simona Beltrami, ICBL
