Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration (SC-VA), Geneva, 17 June 2005

Statement by the ICBL on Victim Assistance

Laurence Cote

Co-Chair – ICBL WGVA

Email: laurence.cote@handicap.be

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). We appreciate the work of Nicaragua and Norway on their initiative to provide a framework to assist the most affected States in developing both measurable country-specific objectives for victim assistance and their plans to meet these objectives.

The meeting has been interesting and informative and your efforts in presenting the situation in your countries are to be congratulated as we now have a much clearer picture of the situation in your countries.

The countries represented here today are rich in diversity, reflecting a range of challenges, and successes to build upon. The severity of the landmine problem and the numbers of mine/UXO survivors varies considerably from country to country, as does the States’ ability to meet the immediate and continuing medical and rehabilitative needs, and the longer term socio-economic reintegration, of mine survivors and other persons with disabilities. Your presentations have reinforced what we knew anecdotally, that existing programs are far from meeting the needs including:

·The need for improving emergency response capabilities for traumatic injuries;

·Ensuring accessibility of appropriate healthcare and rehabilitation facilities;

·Ensuring affordability of appropriate healthcare and rehabilitation;

·Capacity building and on-going training of healthcare and rehabilitation practitioners;

·Creating opportunities for employment and income generation;

·Improving coordination of programming; and

·Increased or better allocation of financial resources.

As we have already discussed, there is a clear understanding that victim assistance does not require the development of new fields or disciplines but rather that existing health care and social services should be adequate to meet the needs of all citizens. A political commitment to assist landmine survivors is essential but ensuring that a real difference is made in their daily lives will require addressing broader development concerns.

The priorities of people with disabilities are the same as anyone else’s – food, shelter, healthcare, family life, clothing, income and full participation – but for many disability and poverty are inextricably linked. The World Bank estimates that 20 percent of the world’s poorest people have a disability. Nevertheless, people with disabilities are largely excluded from mainstream development programs.

Removing the obstacles that marginalize and impoverish mine survivors and other people with disabilities will require the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders, including people with disabilities themselves, national and international NGOs, the relevant ministries in mine-affected countries, bilateral and multilateral donors and UN agencies. There should also be specific disability policies including empowering persons with disabilities through strengthening organizations of disabled people, and ensuring access to appropriate rehabilitation facilities and aids.

Victim assistance, in its context as part of the broader disability and development issue, is a long term business. Unlike mine clearance and stockpile destruction, the needs will never disappear. Progress is being made but more must be done. The benefits are likely to be greater and more sustainable when services for mine survivors and other people with disabilities are provided within existing social, educational, health and labor structures, and where procedures are established to permit effective participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes.

We are at the beginning of a new phase in the implementation of the mine ban treaty. Three documents have been made available to assist the work of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration by the ICBL Working Group on Victim Assistance. In presenting the report Landmine Victim Assistance in 2004: Overview of the Situation in 24 States Parties, the WGVA aims to provide the baseline on which to measure progress on the implementation of the Nairobi action plan over the next 5 years.

The 2nd report, 101 great ideas for the socio economic reintegration of mine survivors aims to motivate, inspire and assist with identifying effective approaches to facilitate the socio-economic reintegration of mine survivors and other persons with disabilities.

The third ICBL Working Group on Victim Assistance initiative is a Study undertaken by Landmine Survivors Network. The purpose of the Study is to provide an assessment of the extent to which mine victims are protected and supported by effective laws and policies, which is one of the six indicators used in previous studies to measure progress in survivor assistance.

The WG looks forward to a continued collaboration with the co-chairs and mine affected states with the aim of improving the quality of lives of landmine survivors and other persons with disabilities.

Thank you.