Recommendations from the Third Independent Report on Mine Action in Nicaragua

Author/Origin: Centro de Estudios Internacionales cei@ibw.com.ni

(Thursday 20 September 2001 )

The "Third Independent Report on Mine Action in Nicaragua", scheduled to be released in Spanish on Wednesday September 18 surveys developments and trends as regards Nicaragua's compliance with the Ottawa Convention over the course of the past 12 months.

The recommendations call on the present government and the incoming government that will take office in January of next year to insure the sustainability of, and improve upon, the efforts to fully comply with the Ottawa Treaty

CEI's report specifically calls upon the Government to:

Reinforce the National Demining Commission

• Insure the permanence and dynamism evidenced over the past few months by the National Demining Commission (NDC), as it constitutes a space for dialogue and policy formulation where different governmental and civil society bodies can meet along with international bodies
• The new Government should study the viability of transferring the chairmanship of the NDC from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Education or Health. This with a view to underlying the civic and humanitarian emphasis that underlines people-centered mine action.
• The NDC subcommisions dealing with mine awareness and rehabilitation should remain active in order to continue to address some of the core problems affecting mine victims, including job placements. Prevention needs to be assigned greater priority. All of this requires strengthening the institutional capacity of the NDC
• The NDC needs to strengthen the nexus between central level activities and actors working at the local level. Organization for Mine Action should have local as well as national level embodiments. Interinsitutional programs and projects can therefore be more effectively designed and monitored insuring benefits for mine victims and persons with disabilities in general.

Destruction of all remaining stockpiled APM within a year

• CEI calls on the presidential candidates and the new government to commit themselves to the destruction of ALL remaining stockpiled mines no later than September of 2002.

Facilitation of Victim Participation

• All actors should acknowledge that the level of victim participation in policy formulation is still not satisfactory. Efforts must be made to support the organizational capacity of the victim's and organizations of persons with disability to involve themselves in the design of programs and projects
• Organizations in afflicted communities, including their municipal authorities, should be more involved in the definition and monitoring of an integral mine action program, including the selection of zones for mine removal and destruction. Such involvement would help develop greater levels of coherence, as well as the inclusion of a stronger humanitarian and preventative action thrust. Greater coordination is needed so those social, economic, environmental and emergency response criterions are fully taken into account in defining mine action priorities.
• The newly formed civil society Nicaraguan Coalition for Mine Action requires support as it represents the first non-governmental network where NGOs and diverse groupings can discuss how to improve their levels of access and input into official discussions

More Coherence in Mine Awareness

• Important first steps have been taken to homogenize the contents and approaches of mine awareness and prevention education. However educational authorities, along with teachers and communities, including children, must interact more with each other in order to clarify the messages to the population and that the recommendations be consistent with one another.
• Educational messages and images should reflect and be adapted to local reality insuring the incorporation of tested and approved international guidelines. In this regard, efforts need to be made to remove the DC comic Superman y and Wonder Woman from circulation following its disauthorization by both UNICEF and the Ministry of Education.
• All efforts must be made to end the phenomena of private demining efforts carried out with rudimentary instruments in some parts of Nicaragua. The full weight of the law must weigh upon those who contract such activities and engage in it, taking also into account that a situation of unemployment and intolerable poverty is driving individuals, particularly exsoldiers, into such activities.

Enhanced and Nondiscriminatory Support for Victims and Rehabilitation Services

• A long term and integral vision must be developed to deal with victims. The presentation of short-term projects for immediate needs is no substitute for the work that needs to be done in Nicaragua to arrive at clearer policy and programmatic instruments
• Support for mine victims should take place within the framework of Public Law 202 dealing public assistance for all persons that suffer some form of disability. Discrimination between mine victims and other victims should not continue to be practiced or tolerated.
• There is an urgent need to strengthen support services for securing of good quality orthopedic instruments insuring accessibility, duration and affordability over a sustained period of time. A single policy is required, not a differentiated one.

Managua, September 18, 2001


Contacts:
Oliver Bodán 088 45328
Alejandro Bendaña 278 5413

www.ceinicaragua.org.ni