Interview with Liz Bernstein, newly appointed ICBL Ambassador

Q: What have your past roles with the ICBL entailed and how does if feel to have been named a new ambassador for the campaign?

Well my past roles with ICBL have been numerous! I began my involvement with ICBL in the early 90s when I was working on the Thai-Cambodia border and landmines were pervasive. We contacted Jody Williams of the then nascent ICBL to see what we could do about it in Cambodia. We then helped launch the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines and hosted the fabulous Phnom Penh conference in 1995, the first ICBL conference in a mine affected country.

Then the Cambodia Campaign 'loaned' me to the ICBL in 1996-1997 during the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) review process and I traveled to Vienna and Geneva as a conference organizer to help facilitate our presence -- the NGO participation, the media, the lobbying, the public events -- at the meetings for the CCW review process.

Then it continued! I went to Mozambique in 1996 to prepare the ICBL conference in Maputo in February 1997, and as the Ottawa process gathered steam I continued to serve as conference team coordinator and traveled to Brussels, Oslo and Ottawa to help local campaigns and partners while preparing for the ICBL arrivals en masse!

Then in early 1998, when Jody stepped down as coordinator, I became coordinator of the campaign, and served as coordinator until Jan 2005. It was a fabulous experience and a privilege to coordinate the campaign during those important years - after the treaty had been signed and some concern of 'landmine fatigue' - but we certainly recognized the importance of implementing the treaty and universalizing it, and growing the campaign - so many remained committed and new campaigners in new regions joined, and we all grew together. Now it is a new exciting phase - some similar, some new, challenges. I am thrilled to be able to serve in a new capacity. I certainly have less time to devote to landmines, but it always has such a special place in my heart that I want to find ways to be able to be useful even with less time. I was so happy to be asked to serve on the management committee and help share experience from the previous years - and now the ambassador position is quite an honor!

Q: How has your previous work with ICBL contributed to your work at the Nobel Women’s Initiative?

I coordinated the Canadian campaign of Make Poverty History last year for 8 months - and ICBL experiences certainly contributed to that work in terms of understanding more about landmines and conflict (and post conflict) poverty and development needs as well as the coordination of large networks of NGOs who share common goals but have very different experiences, roles and memberships etc.

The ICBL experience certainly helped me in enabling me to coordinate a large, diverse national coalition and as for the Nobel Women's Initiative, which is a new project of women Nobel Peace Prize laureates, it is of course also helping me, and all of us, to draw on that

experience to cultivate partnerships, understand existing networks and where we might concentrate our energies to help make a difference - for example to help spotlight wonderful work that is already being done by women toiling away in the background for years, without recognition, to help highlight their existing work and dedication, as with national landmine campaigns and groups - much of the work of coordination is to help communicate and share news of the good work that others are doing and also to bring people with similar aims and goals together.

Q: Can you discuss your personal connection to the landmine ban community and your experiences both on the field and off that have inspired your efforts?

Since we were engaged in peace and reconciliation work, you could not do anything without addressing landmines in Cambodia. I first wrote a story about landmine victims in a red cross hospital from different factions (army/paramilitary), all having lost legs, in beds next to each other in the hospital (in the early 90s). We then decided to start the campaign there, engaging in peace walks (Dhammayietras) through the country and through many mined areas. On one such peace walk, we were fired upon and later marched through mined areas (we were taken by the Khmer Rouge and marched at gunpoint through mined areas to go meet their commander). That was certainly a personal experience of landmines. I had been working on the campaign for a few years beforehand - we'd all had mine risk education, but the indiscriminate nature hit home then. I could speak to the young Khmer Rouge soldier with an AK47, talk to him about his brother in the US. He would then have to decide to hurt me or not - but if I stepped on a mine - whether he or someone else had planted it - then or years ago - no choice or decision in terms of its target. It was completely indiscriminate.

Of course my personal connection to Cambodia at the time was very deep and so I also had so many stories of friends, colleagues etc living with landmines: the other ambassadors - Tun Channareth and Song Kosal, whom I had known and been inspired by for years - Sok Eng, and many countless wonderful Cambodian friends who were not as lucky as I was but worked tirelessly to improve their own lives, that of their families and communities, and all of us by participating in the international campaign as well, despite all the challenges in their daily survival in addition to changing attitudes.

Q: How do you see

your position as an Ambassador heightening your ability to contribute to the cause at hand?

I hope I can contribute however the campaign would like me to contribute as ambassador, but certainly in travels. For example, during a recent trip Jody Williams and I made to Jordan for other work we were able to meet Jordanian authorities involved in the mine issues, combining this opportunity to help further ICBL goals as well. And I will continue to speak in other fora about the amazing success of the ICBL and inspire other movements and coalitions in terms of sharing some of our lessons - positive and negative.

Q: What is your main focus within the campaign and what are your expectations for the critical 2006-2009 period ahead that will determine the true commitment of many states parties to the mine ban treaty?

It is simply crucial to get the job done - to meet the 2009 Article 5 deadlines for mine clearance, to truly implement the treaty - for landmines and people living with landmines certainly but also for so many other issues - people continue to hold up the landmines issue as one of success but if we fail here it is a failure for other issues as well. Governments are all too quick to shut out NGOs from discussions and treaty negotiations on other issues and the 'Ottawa process' example of partnership can't be just an anomaly, an exception. We have to continue to fight and insist on our right to have civil society involved in discussions and negotiations on issues of concern to all of us on the planet, and we can only use the landmines example of successful government - NGO partnership if we truly succeed and turn the words into reality!