ICBL Statement on Universalization

Standing Committee Meeting on the General Status of the Convention

Geneva, 13 July 2005

ICBL intervention on the universalisation of the Convention

Delivered by Sylvie Brigot, ICBL Advocacy Director

With 42 States still outside the Convention, including States which are using and producing mines and keeping large stockpiles that number more than 100 million, the universalisation of the Convention and the norm of the ban itself present greater challenges during the coming five year period and remains a high priority for the ICBL. Since the Nairobi Summit we have tried to build on the substantive work done in the past on universalisation. We did this with an even greater energy because it appears clear that the Post Nairobi momentum is very high and there is a pressing need not to let this momentum go without using it.

Part of this work was done by ICBL/ national campaigns alone, but most of it, to be successful and fruitful, included and required, the active cooperation and collaboration with States Parties willing to implement Actions 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Nairobi Action Plan, and key partners such as the ICRC and the UN agencies.

We believe this cooperation needs to be strategically developed and strengthened in the coming months so that the interest demonstrated by some of these states for the Convention, and the norm it represents, can be transformed by the 6MSP, into new accessions or interim voluntary measures. I will give a few examples of activities undertaken but invite you all to contact the chair of the Universalisation Contact Group, Canada, should you be interested in contributing to help furthering the goals of the Convention and accession to it by one of the State which is still outside of it. And I take this opportunity to thank Canada also for the renewed energy and resources they put into this work since Nairobi.

ICBL have encouraged all Signatories to complete their ratification process without further delay, and national campaigns maintained an ongoing dialogue with relevant ministries or parliamentarians, in Latvia, Poland, Ukraine and Pacific Islands, including Vanuatu. We are very pleased with recent announcements by Latvia, Ukraine, Vanuatu and Bhutan, and encourage them to finalise the ratification/accession process as soon as possible.

We plan an advocacy mission in Singapore, and an event and meetings in Brunei and Indonesia this summer, to try to move up the place of the Convention’s ratification into the agenda of national Parliaments. Any encouragements from other Parliamentary Assemblies, particularly from Asia, should be helpful. We also maintained regular contact with Haiti to try to clarify the situation in this country and we welcome the statement of the delegation of Haiti this morning.

ICBL built on t he growing interest shown by some states for the landmine issue and the Convention. In Bahrain, we met with officials, civil society members and the Red Crescent, in the margin of a media training on landmines and the Convention, for journalists from the Gulf region. It seems that countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council members States (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ) could be willing to take some positive steps towards their accession to the Convention. We call on all States to find a way to encourage them to do so, including the biannual GCC Ministers of Defence meeting. Following the succesful Seminar on Removing Landmines in Tripoli, Libya, to which we took part, we would also like to welcome the presence of a Libyan delegation expected to arrive in Geneva on Wednesday, led by Dr Sialla, as well as NGO colleagues of the Gaddafi Foundation and Antimine association. We encourage all all of you to talk to them.

In Azerbaijan and Georgia, ICBL conducted an advocacy/research mission where both governments indicated more interest for the Convention and the mine issue. Georgia expressed the need to better understand the Convention’s obligation and we call on States Parties to address this request. In Kyrgyzstan, the transition government expressed its interest to seriously consider the accession to the Convention, our Campaign is working hard to keep this momentum after the upcoming governmental election in July. Any encouragement from States Parties, which have a special relationship with Kyrgyzstan, would be helpful. Other countries in which ICBL undertakes activities to promote the Convention and the norm of a ban on antipersonnel landmines include among others India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka…

Landmine Monitor research has now identified 65 Non States Armed Groups (NSAGs) involve in use or alleged use in 19 countries. To help promote global observance of the Convention’s norms, use by NSAGs must be addressed both energetically and creatively. The Landmine Monitor has established this year a specific thematic coordination to assess NSAGs actions, both supportive and obstructive, to the goals of the mine ban movement.

ICBL national campaigns in Colombia, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand, continue to seek NSAGs to bring their actions into compliance with the norm established by the Convention.

Details of these activities are available on our website ( www.icbl.org) or in the newsletter you will find on tables outside this room. As usual, ICBL members/LM researchers coming from all these countries, are present here, and we encourage you to talk to them this week.

Thank you.