Author(s):
Site Admin <webmaster2@icbl.org> .
Monday 30 March 2009
In February 2009, members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) convened in Managua, Nicaragua to conduct advocacy and outreach in support of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
Closing Plenary: Norwegian Ambassador Susan Eckey and ICBL member Jesús Martínez. Photo: Mary Wareham
The ICBL delegation to Managua included including eight landmine survivors from Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Peru. ICBL representatives contributed to a victim assistance meeting held parallel to the Managua Workshop. Before the opening of the Managua Workshop, ICBL member Handicap International organized a briefing on victim assistance at American University.
On 25 February, delegations of ICBL representatives met with diplomatic representatives of Cuba and the United States, the only countries in the Americas that have yet to join the Mine Ban Treaty. Cuban Ambassador Luis Hernandez Ojeda expressed interest in the treaty’s Second Review Conference. The deputy U.S. representative to Nicaragua Richard M. Sanders agreed to transmit the ICBL’s request for a review of U.S. landmine policy back to Washington, DC.
The ICBL held a press conference on 23 February 2009 and its media outreach resulted good local media coverage in national print, radio and television media as well as EFE, AFP, Associated Press and Reuters Television wire services.Other outreach included a public talk by ICBL and Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) representatives for students at the American University.
Jesús Martínez, Director of the Survivor Network Foundation, and Sylvie Brigot, ICBL Executive Director, address the media. Photo: Mary Wareham
At the conclusion of the Managua Workshop, the ICBL representatives participated in a half-day briefing on the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions held by the Cluster Munition Coalition in cooperation with Nicaragua and Norway. Approximately a dozen states participated including non-signatories Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama all stated that their respective ratifications of the Convention are progressing.The CMC disseminated new ratification campaign materials in Spanish.At a meeting held on 25 February between CMC representatives and five members of the national congress, the vice president of Nicaragua’s parliamentary foreign affairs commission committed to swift ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
ICBL executive director Sylvie Brigot, CMC staff member Serena Olgiati, and campaigners from twelve countries across the region participated in the week’s activities: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Government representatives attended the Managua Workshop from 18 countries across the region: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
Civil society delegation to the workshop. Photo: Mary Wareham
More information:
Presentacion de la Campaña Internacional para la Prohibición de las Minas Antipersonal (Opening remarks by Sylvie Brigot, ICBL Executive Director)
Las expectativas de la ICBL para la II Conferencia de Revision (ICBL Expectations for the 2nd Review Conference, by Jesús Martínez, Director, Fundación Red de Sobrevivientes)
Conferenca de prensa resumen (Summary of the 23 February press conference)
Official website of the Managua Workshop on Progress and Challenges in Achieving a Mine-Free Americas
Cluster Munition Coalition
Photos from the week of advocacy activities (Photostream of the Aotearoa New Zealand CMC)
