Daily Update 2

Author/Origin: Wenche Brenden wenche@icbl.org

(Tuesday 22 June 2004 Geneva, Switzerland)
Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education (MRE) and Mine Action Technologies
Co-Chairs - Cambodia & Japan
Co-Rapporteurs - Algeria & Sweden

The Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Related Technologies took place over one and a half days: on Monday afternoon and the whole day Tuesday.

ICBL presentations:

• Sara Sekkenes, NPA, made an intervention on the state of implementation of Article 5.
• Stan Brabant, HI Belgium, gave a joint presentation (prepared together with Reuben McCarthy from UNICEF), on the status of the Mine Ban Treaty with regards to Mine Risk Education.

Key discussions

No substantive discussions, but instead presentations on the importance of all mine-affected countries reporting on their "4 P's" (Problem, Plans, Progress and Priorities) before the Review Conference.

On Tuesday 17 countries presented information on their problems, plans, progress and priorities as they relate to mine action.

Cambodia	Honduras	Guatemala
Nicaragua	Peru	Ecuador
Colombia	Djibouti	Sudan
Burundi	Malawi	Albania
Tunisia	France	Congo RO
Nigeria	Chad

On Monday 13 countries made presentations

Afghanistan	Thailand	Senegal
Eritrea	Maritania	Zambia
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Rwanda	Tajikistan
Algeria	Mozambique	Jordan
Namibia

Highlights for the ICBL:

• Improved and more comprehensive reporting, the "4P" approach, has contributed to increased and more structured and constructive reporting from mine affected countries.
• Increased reporting on links between mine action and humanitarian issues and integration of mine action into social-economical development plans.
• Increased reference to target groups really affected by the presence of mines, mine-affected communities are slowy being humanised.
• All reported on development of national mine action strategy plans.
• Almost all reported on Mine Risk Education (MRE) as an important component of their Mine Action Programmes.
• Djibouti and Honduras state that they have met their clearance deadlines in Art. 5 (paragraph 1, destroy all mines in mined areas within 10 years) and thereby join Costa Rica as countries who have fully met their obligations as pertains to Article 5 of the MBT.

Concern for the ICBL:

• Increase of countries that report on inadequate capacity to meet their obligations with regard to their clearance deadlines.
• Less targeted reporting on clear priorities for assistance.
• Use of terms "mine-safe" and "mine impact-free" which by definition will not be in line with the convention particularly if this means not meeting the 2009 or subsequent 10-year deadlines.

Quote of the day

“Let there be no mistake, all mine-affected State Parties are obliged to clear all mined areas...Only mine-free is acceptable”. Ambassador Kongstad, Norway