5 MSP Lobbying : take action now !

Author/Origin: Sylvie Brigot brigotSPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTERicbl.org

(Thursday 17 July 2003 ) Meet with your government ! Meet with embassies !

Dear all,

I hope my email finds you all well.

Contents Who? Why? What are ICBL Messages and Concerns about the implementation of the Convention ? Who are our universalisation targets?

Just two months from now, the Fifth Meeting of States Parties (5MSP) to the Mine Ban Treaty will take place in Bangkok. This event is a unique opportunity for the landmine community to demonstrate to the whole world that the Convention makes a difference on the ground and that the effort needs to be strengthened and sustained to ensure that we reach our goal: a mine-free world.

To ensure this, we need you to take action now and meet with your government to discuss priorities for the full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Ask for their help promote the Mine Ban Treaty and suggest that they contact non-signatories and signatories in the region to urge accession and ratification by the 5MSP. In addition, we encourage you to meet embassies of non States Parties to urge them to join the treaty before the 5MSP and/or to take interim measures that will bring them closer to a ban.

Below are suggested messages about treaty implementation and targets for universalisation. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me, and I'll be happy to hear from you about the success of your different meetings! Good luck and thank you for your effort.

Kind regards to all,
Sylvie

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Who?

• Contact your government representative(s) and ask for a meeting. If you already know the persons who will be going to Bangkok try to meet with them;
• Contact Embassies of the targeted countries you will find below and try to set up a meeting.
• Try to set up your meetings at the highest possible level.

Why?

Set up a meeting with your government to :

1. Identify the delegation to Bangkok


2. Ensure that they know about the Bangkok meeting and they plan to participate meaningfully and constructively in the Conference and "are prepared to contribute"


3. Convey our message and concerns to the government related to the general implementation of the Convention


4. Raise specific implementation concerns with regards your government eg. late initial Article 7 reports or large stockpiles retained, and ask that these are addressed (or plans are made to address them) BEFORE the 5MSP.

Set up meetings with embassies to :

1. Inform the representative about the 5MSP, ask if the country plans to attend


2. Convey our message to the government related to the general implementation of the Convention, including raising some of our concerns toward this specific county


3. Raise specific implementation concerns eg. late initial Article 7 reports or large stockpiles retained, and ask that these are addressed (or plans are made to address them) BEFORE the 5MSP.

What are ICBL messages and concerns about the implementation of the Convention ?

Article 1: Joint Operations And Assist

Encourage your government to make statements on Article 1 commenting specifically on the 8 points outlined in the ICBL statement at the May 16 Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention, with a view to reaching a common understanding by the Review Conference.

These points, in ICBL's review and assessment of 30 statements made to date by States Parties, reflect an emerging common view about what States Parties should NOT do when engaged in a joint military operation with a non-State Party.
[Note: the following is not an exhaustive list.]

1. No participation in planning for possible use of antipersonnel mines;


2. No participation in training activities involving use of antipersonnel mines;


3. Reject any Rules of Engagement permitting use of antipersonnel mines;


4. Do not agree to operational plans authorizing use of antipersonnel mines by a combined force;


5. Reject any orders to use antipersonnel mines;
   
6. Do not request use of antipersonnel mines by others if you are in command of a combined force;


7. No participation in a battle where a State Party's forces gain direct military benefit from the use of antipersonnel mines by others;


8. No assistance in laying, transporting, or providing security for stocks of antipersonnel mines.

Article 2: Antivehicle Mines With Sensitive Fuses And Anti Vehicle Mines With Antihandling Devices

Encourage your government to publicly state that, "anti-vehicle mines with anti-handling devices that explode from the unintentional contact of a person are considered antipersonnel mines and therefore banned", as was made clear by the negotiators of the Convention during the Diplomatic Conference in Oslo in 1997. It was explicitly stated by both the Austrian Chair of the Working Group on definitions and the S. African President of the Committee of the Whole and agreed to with no objections.

The failure so far for the States Parties to reach any common view on this issue has been of great concern for the ICBL, which Steve Goose outlined during the last Standing Committees meeting. He strongly encouraged States to reach a common understanding on this issue at the Review Conference in 2004, thereby avoiding confusion about what the convention bans and what it does not.

To date, Landmine Monitor collected about two dozen statements on this issue, with the vast majority supporting the Oslo interpretation. A few have diverged and a few have been vague or non-committal.
Among those supporting the negotiators' view have been Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, South Africa and Switzerland.
Among those dissenting have been Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Article 3: Mines Retained For Training

Remind your government that the number of mines retained should be in the "hundreds or thousands, but not tens of thousands" as intended by the Oslo treaty negotiators and has been common State practice since!

Ask your government to include information in their Article 7 report on "intended purpose and actual use" of any mines retained.

Article 4: Stockpile Destruction

Encourage your government to announce its plan for destruction, if it hasn't done so yet or if it is a new State Party.

If destruction is ongoing, encourage it to announce progress or needs, if any. Ask if there is any problem that prevents your government from destroying its stock if the destruction is stopped or hasn't started yet.
Try to find out how they plan to solve them, and comply with this obligation of the Convention. Remind them that there is a 4 year deadline, with >no< extension possible.

Article 5: Mine Action (Mine clearance and Mine Risk Education)

1. If you are talking to a donor country representative, encourage your government to announce any new funding commitment for mine action

2. If you are in a mine affected country, encourage your government to report on the 4 P approach BOTH for mine clearance and mine risk education:

• PROBLEM: relate to the mined areas and the humanitarian impact of these areas;


• PLANS: which have been developed to clear these areas;


• PRIORITIES: for assistance to support the implementation of a national mine clearance plans;


• PROGRESS: made in clearing mined areas.

Also, ask that they provide information on mine risk education in their Article 7 reports.

• Remind them that Article 5 requires States Parties to assure the destruction of AP mines in mined areas "as soon as possible", but not later than 10 years.
  Even though an extension of the 10 years is possible, it should be viewed as an exception, not the rule.

Article 6: Victim Assistance

1. If you are in a mine-affected country, encourage your government to:
   
   • to include officials from line ministries –Social services or Health ministries- that are relevant to Victim Assistance in the meetings.
   
   
   • To elaborate national planning for victim assistance, including survivors as a resource
   
   
   • To set up a national disability coordination body if it hasn't done so already
   
   
   • to set up a National Mine information System that provides among others:
     a) Focal point for VA in the country
     b) Location of existing orthopedic centres.- are geographical areas availed equal services?
     c) Services available and costs involved
   
   
   • be transparent and share information: use of Form J of the Article 7 report format
   
   
   • to address the issue of Compensation for landmine survivors
   
   
   • to support a New Convention that protects the Rights of People with Disabilities.

2. If you are in a donor country, encourage your government to fund victim assistance programmes.

Article 7: Transparency Report

If they have not yet done so, encourage your governments to send their Article 7 transparency report on time (and electronically if possible) and include comprehensive information in it.

Encourage them to utilize voluntary Form J for reporting on:

• victim assistance matters;


• intended purposes and actual uses of mines retained under Article 3;


• Claymore mines and steps taken to ensure they are used in command detonated mode only (as done by South Africa and Sweden);


• foreign stockpiles of antipersonnel mines (as done by Tajikistan in their initial Article 7 report).

Inform them about the Vertic Guide on Article 7 reports: http://www.vertic.org/research/guide/guide.html

Even if your government is not a Party to the Convention, they can submit voluntarily an Article 7 report as an interim step (see universalisation below).
Poland and Latvia did so recently.

Article 8: Facilitation And Clarification Of Compliance

Encourage your government to seek/stimulate progress on the operationalization of Article 8 by the 2004 Review Conference, as well as to deal with compliance concerns, if they occur, in a more coordinated, systematic and effective way.

Article 9: National Implementation Measures

If it hasn't yet done so, encourage your government to pass legislation or adopt other legally binding measures that would impose penal sanctions for any potential future violations of the treaty, and would provide for full implementation of all aspects of the treaty.

This is an obligation and an important measure to ensure the compliance with the Treaty.

If it hasn't yet done so, ask why, and what the government or Parliament could do to start drafting legislation. Do they need samples? Materials? Legal assistance?

Inform them about the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) kit on legislation and offer to put them in touch with the ICRC's legal advisors who may be able to help. The ICRC's information kit is available at this page

Who are our universalisation targets?

We would like all States to accede to or ratify the Convention. But we have targeted some countries for Bangkok. We ask you to please think which ones you might help reach any ones with whom your country might share a language or have cultural, economic or political ties. Please write, call or visit the embassy in your country:

• China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
  These are countries targeted in the current Action Alert on Asia.
  For more information and online letters see this article
• Indonesia: where the campaign has been re-invigorated recently, and believes accelerating the accession process is possible and international pressure can help to make this happen!
  Contact: Jesuit Refugee Service Indonesia, Ingvild Solvang
• In Europe, our targets are Greece, Turkey, Serbia &Montenegro, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland
  If you want more information on these countries to set up meetings, send me an email here.

For some of our targets and all non-signatories, we can encourage them to adopt interim steps, which would move them closer to joining the treaty and show their good intentions.

These include:

• voluntarily submit an Article 7 (or transparency) report;


• adopting a moratorium on production, export, use;


• sponsoring the annual United Nations General Assembly resolution on the treaty;


• providing information about its landmine stockpile and starting plans for stockpile destruction;


• drafting national legislation or other process needed for accession (by non-signatories) or ratification (by signatories) of the Convention;


• assisting landmine survivors and their families;


• engaging in mine clearance and mine risk education where it is needed;
• sharing information on victim assistance, mine clearance, mine risk education;


• attending (as observers) Meetings of States Parties and the Intersessional Standing Committee meetings.

Resources:

The International Committee of the Red Cross has devised model instruments to be used for ratification and accession to the treaty:
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList74/9A0F7F9DF2CAD1E4C1256B66005FE1BE