Surviving the Scourge of Landmines

Final Statement of the ICBL Jordan Conference

"Surviving the Scourge of Landmines"
First Regional Meeting on Landmine Injury and Rehabilitation in the Middle East
11-12 July 1998Amman, Jordan

FINAL STATEMENT

From 11-12 July 1998, under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Landmine Survivors Network, in cooperation with the Jordan Red Crescent, the Hashemite Charitable Society for Soldiers with Special Needs and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, hosted a regional conference aimed at examining landmine injury and rehabilitation throughout the Middle East and North Africa and at promoting a comprehensive ban on antipersonnel mines by Jordan and countries of the region.

The conference was attended by more than 350 participants from
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in over 30 countries of the region along with international NGO participants from as far away as Taiwan and the United States. Diplomatic representatives of the governments of Canada and Norway attended the conference along with diplomatic representatives posted to Jordan.

The opening plenary featured remarks from: Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; LSN Co-Founder and Director Jerry White; Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Canada's Ambassador for Mine Action, Jill Sinclair; Norway's Special Representative for Mine Action, Ambassador Ragne Lund; Dr. Hans Husum of the Trauma Care Foundation; Jordanian Royal Corps of Engineers General Nassar Majali; and a written statement by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan read by Nils Kastberg, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programs. The UN General Secretary wrote: "...we know from the courage and energy of...victims that rehabilitation is possible, and that land-mine survivors can play vitally important roles in their societies if only they are given the opportunity."

The centerpiece of the plenary session was the testimonies by nearly 40 landmine survivors from the region, the largest gathering ever of mine victims at an international conference. LSN Co-founder Ken Rutherford and LSN's associate in Amman, Kamel Sa'adi, led the testimonial. Two Jordanian landmine survivors, 12 year old Abraham Al Waradat and 17 year old Aladdin Al Widiana presented the Queen with a
""Bill of Rights for Landmine Survivors" which advocates the right of survivors to be fully involved in all decisions affecting their own
rehabilitation. LSN submitted The Bill of Rights at the conference on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Noor, and it draws on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and U.N. Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.

At the opening plenary HM Queen Noor announced that Jordan was signing the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines after approval of the decision was taken by the Jordanian Cabinet earlier that morning. The ICBL, including coordination committee members Landmine Survivors Network, Human Rights Watch and Handicap International, ICRC and the Governments of Canada and Norway warmly welcomed Jordan's decision to
become the 128th country to sign the treaty since December 1997. Other countries in the region--Algeria, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen-have signed, but Jordan hopes to be among the top 40 ratifications required to make the treaty international law, and expects to ratify the treaty this summer.

The Jordanian Cabinet is now proceeding with the constitutional
agreements necessary for Jordan to signing and ratification. Queen Noor also stated that "Jordan has not imported landmines since 1974 and has never, and will never, export them." She made a personal commitment to become Patron of LSN and support global efforts to ban antipersonnel mines and address the urgent needs of mine victims. The Queen spoke of
the 64,000 mines cleared to date in Jordan Valley and on Monday 13 July will lead a delegation of media and conference participants to view demining operations at the invitation of the Royal Jordanian Core of Engineers in the Jordan Valley.

Representatives of the Eden Social Welfare Foundation of Taiwan donated fifty wheelchairs to two local rehabilitation organizations. LSN representative Brady Lee joined Encore Pai and Robert Lin to make the contribution to the Jordan Sports Federation for the Handicapped and the Hashemite Charitable Society for Soldiers with Special Needs, both under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Ra'ad Bin Zeid.

The conference included presentations, panels, exhibitions, videos and slide shows on a wide range of victim assistance-related issues, including access to emergency medical care; mobility and prosthetics, social and economic reintegration and mine awareness. The Mine Ban
Treaty and the work of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines was addressed by ICBL Co-Coordinator, Susan B. Walker and two dozen campaigners from the region met to discuss their efforts to date. Religious perspectives on landmines and survivor assistance and support for the landmine ban were delivered by Christian and Islamic religious leaders from the region, including the Imam of the Royal Court of Jordan, Dr. Ahmn Hlayel. The religious panel expressed consensus that the evil inflicted by landmines was anti-Islam and against the tenets of Christianity, and there was a need to care for the injured and prevent future death.

I. Survivor Assistance

Conference participants call on governments of the region and the
world to:

• Accept and respect the "Bill of Rights for Landmine Survivors" as encouraged by Her Majesty Queen Noor.
• Adopt the example set by Jordan of establishing legislation and
  implementing policy promoting the effective treatment, care and
  protection for disabled citizens, including landmine survivors.
  
• Establish national rehabilitation plans and the budget to implement them.
• Provide affordable and quality rehabilitative care for all disabled
  citizens, both military and civilian.
  
• Make public detailed information on mine incidents, mine clearance, populations at risk and available rehabilitation services in their country.
• Pursue legal mechanisms for protecting and compensating landmine survivors, their families and mine-affected communities.

Conference participants call for:

• Local disability organizations or societies to join together and
  lobby for a common cause: the reintegration of disabled into society.
  
• All actors involved in disability and rehabilitation to consider the
  whole person and not focus on only medical diagnosis, statistics and studies.
  
• Increased attention toward landmine injuries other than loss of limb such as blindness and loss of hearing. As there are standards for prosthetics provision, consideration must be given to broader intervention such as training to work with deaf or blind individuals, provision of canes and training in Braille.
• Increased attention on walking with the prosthetic device early on to avoid the development of bad habits that are difficult to change in the future.
• Increased emphasis on a 'team-approach' for rehabilitation including physicians, nurses, physical therapists/orthotists, psychological support and social workers in order to restore the dignity and self-esteem of survivors.
• Community workers to be trained in emergency first aid, especially in the case of traumatic injury or landmine accident.
• Mine awareness education to include a follow-on 'bleeding awareness' message in their materials such a posters on what to do if you have a mine injury.
• The use of wound packing and elastic bandage to prevent excessive blood loss after a traumatic injury.

II. Antipersonnel Landmine Ban:

Conference participants call on:

• Jordan to quickly implement its decision to sign and ratify the Mine Ban Treaty now, and follow-through on its commendable promise to lead other countries of the region to sign, ratify and fully implement the treaty and to promote landmine survivor and mine clearance assistance programmes.
• Governments of the region to sign and ratify the Mine Ban Treaty
  now. The Mine Ban Treaty provides the best framework for the total elimination of antipersonnel mines.
  
• Governments of the region, if they refuse to sign the treaty now, to take interim steps such as a permanent ban on production of all
  antipersonnel landmines, a permanent ban on the export of all
  antipersonnel landmines; and the establishment of a timetable for the destruction of stockpiles of all antipersonnel landmines.
  
• Governments of the region to make public detailed information on production, stockpiles, and exports of antipersonnel landmines.
• Parties to any possible conflicts in the region not to use
  antipersonnel landmines.
  

PLANS OF ACTION

As a result of the conference the ICBL is hopeful that more
coordinated NGO action against landmines will take place between NGOs within Jordan and countries of the region. The conference participants developed two action plans for the future.

Major elements of the plans include:

I. Survivor Assistance Plan of Action

• Participants will encourage further studies into the feasibility of
  sustainable in-country rehabilitative programmes to provide quality products and services for disabled, including landmine survivors.
  
• Due to difficulty in repairing devices made in foreign countries,
  conference participants advise that existing in-country options should first be considered.
  
• Participants will encourage NGOs of the region to seek out and
  develop contacts with disabled in their own countries with a view to increasing the full social and economic reintegration of disabled in their country.
  

II. Ban Landmines Plan of Action

• Participants will inform colleagues in their own and other
  organizations about the Jordan conference and its final statement and plans of action.
  
• Participants will inform their media about the conference and give interviews on TV/radio upon returning home.
• Some participants will forward resolutions and results of the Jordan conference to their decision-makers and leaders.
• The Eden Social Welfare Foundation will liase with sponsoring
  organizations and with the ICBL Coordination Committee and Team to arrange for the donation of equipment needed by campaigns of the South to effectively campaign;
  
• Some participants will collect data and information on the landmines situation in their regions and share this information with NGOs participating in the Landmine Monitor initiative which seeks to establish a global reporting network for NGOs to monitor
  implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.
  
• Participants from Egypt will return and meet with NGOs interested and active in promoting the call for a ban with a view to establishing an Egyptian Campaign to Ban Landmines and to co-hosting the Fifth International Conference of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. On behalf of these NGOs, Dr. Alaa Ghannam of the Egyptian Legal Research and Resource Center will report back on behalf of Egyptian NGOs to the ICBL on the feasibility of co-hosting such a meeting at the next meeting of the ICBL Coordination Committee in Dublin, Ireland in late September 1998.