Statement of the Third General Meeting of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

6-7 March 2001
Washington DC, USA

The General Meeting of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) met in Washington DC 6-7 March 2001. 160 participants from 80 country campaigns of the ICBL and representatives of international organizations attended the General Meeting, as well as 20 NGO observers from an additional 10 countries. The General Meeting met during Ban Landmines Week in Washington D.C. During this week, two hundred mine survivors, deminers and campaigners from 90 countries came together in Washington D.C. This marked the first time that the ICBL converged in the United States of America. Simultaneously, 200 activists from 46 of the 50 states, including members of Students Against Landmines from schools nation-wide, met in Washington for a USCBL national conference and four days of activities including over 300 meetings with their Congressional representatives. While in the US capital, international and US activists alike urged the US government to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Ban Landmines Week

The presence of the ICBL and USCBL in Washington for their general meeting from March 5-11 prompted DC Mayor Anthony Williams to proclaim this week Ban Landmines Week. The week included a series of activities and awareness-raising events in the nation's capital. Some events included a reception at the Organization of American States, embassy visits and a press conference, shoe pyramid and an international demining demonstration on the capitol lawn. Exhibits in shopping malls and cafés, "landmine" coasters in bars, the first ever amputee hockey tournament, a film screening of Land of Iron, a film about landmines in Korea, and a mine-related play, are a few of the many events which culminated in a demonstration in Lafayette Park. International and American youth presented hundreds of thousands of petition signatures across the street from the White House. The week's events ended with an interfaith prayer service. The week's events were successful and garnered much media coverage, both nationally and internationally. Queen Noor, USCBL chair Jerry White and ICBL Youth Ambassador Song Kosal also met with Secretary of State Colin Powell during the week.

The General Meeting

The General Meeting received reports from the chairs of its various working and administrative groups, and its coordination committee on the progress of the ICBL since its last General Meeting in May 1999 in Maputo, Mozambique. Participants met in thematic working groups and in regional groups, in addition to plenary sessions, in order to take major decisions on the ICBL's strategic direction and activities over the next four years by the first Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in 2004.

At its last General Meeting in Maputo the ICBL agreed to redouble its energy and efforts to achieve universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT), as well as ensure its full implementation, with a target of the Review Conference in 2004. Towards this end, the General Meeting adopted the ICBL 2004 Action Plan, a comprehensive plan in which the ICBL challenges itself to accomplish its goals as quickly as possible. The development of the plan was based upon input from National Campaigns, individual NGOs and working groups of the ICBL who contributed via email and fax and through discussions in regional meetings throughout the previous 6 month period. A draft was considered at a special meeting of the CC, dedicated to this purpose, held in Geneva in December 2000. This General Meeting considered a revised draft incorporating further input and adopted it as the ICBL 2004 Action Plan. The results of the regional and working group meetings at the General Meeting are considered to be concrete ideas to be taken up within the framework of the 2004 Action Plan by the various working groups within the campaign. It is the intention of the general meeting that these results be referred to the relevant working groups and regional groups for consideration and follow-up.

The 2004 Action Plan

The preface states "The ICBL recognizes that time is of the essence in the furtherance of its goals. While it has managed to help keep a global focus on the elimination of mines, and thus an impressive momentum that has continued largely unabated, its members know that the international community eventually will move on to other issues. It is in this context that the ICBL has challenged itself to increased activity over the next years to bring about its goals as quickly as possible. To give shape to the challenge, the ICBL has developed the following 2004 Action Plan. However, the ICBL also assumes flexibility and multiple activities to be carried on within working groups, national campaigns and regions over the coming years. The plan will be assessed regularly and in particular preceding 2004."

The overall goals of the 2004 Action Plan include:

1. Universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT)
   
2. Compliance with the treaty provisions
   
3. Increased and sustained resource commitments (e.g., government, international financial institutions, etc.) for mine clearance, mine awareness and victim assistance, and for stockpile destruction
   
4. Firm establishment of the norm, as an international standard of behavior by all.

While each goal is important on its own, all of the overall goals of the ICBL inform one another as the ICBL promotes a coherent, comprehensive and integrated approach to the landmines crisis. The plan elaborates steps to accomplish these goals, general priorities and strategies and issues common to all regions of the ICBL network as well as strategies by thematic area (victim assistance, mine clearance, mine/uxo awareness and risk education, stockpiles and their destruction, non-state actors, campaigning and youth.) The plan also includes steps to achieve the goals of the ICBL, on a region-by-region, year-by-year basis. A copy of the full plan is available from ICBL ( www.icbl.org/info/actionplan).

Structural changes to the ICBL during the General Meeting included:

• The ICBL General Meeting noted that two CC members have stepped down: Physicians for Human Rights and the Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines. The ICBL expresses its deep appreciation and welcomes their continuing commitment to the ban on landmines, particularly as they focus on their national campaign efforts.
  
• The ICBL General Meeting accepted the continuation of the twelve remaining members on the CC: Afghan Campaign to Ban landmines, Association for Aid and Relief-Japan, Cambodian Campaign to Ban Landmines, Colombian Campaign Against Landmines, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Kenya Coalition Against Landmines, Landmine Survivors Network, Lutheran World Federation, Mines Action Canada, Norwegian People's Aid, and the South African Campaign to Ban Landmines.
  
• The ICBL General Meeting invited one new member to the CC: the German Initiative to Ban Landmines, thus bringing the total number of CC members to 13.

In addition, the Coordinating Committee informed the General Meeting about the hiring of two new staff persons to support the implementation of the 2004 Action Plan.

The next ICBL General Meeting is scheduled for 2003 and the Coordination Committee will undertake the necessary arrangements.