| <TREATY WORKING GROUP | WORKING GROUP ON VICTIM ASSISTANCE> |
The ICBL Mine Action Working Group (MAWG) was formed in February 1998 to serve as the focal point for addressing issues related to mine action, with particular focus on work in the field. The core members of the group are project-implementing organizations, such as Handicap International France, Handicap International Belgium, Mines Advisory Group, Mines Clearance Planning Agency, Norwegian People’s Aid, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Medico International, and advocacy organizations such as the German Initiative to Ban Landmines. In addition to this core, there is wider participation from a number of the other organizations either involved or interested in the issue. Norwegian People’s Aid assumed the role of chair of the MAWG during this reporting period.
The MAWG is a loose structure, which communicates mainly by email, but MAWG members also meet to discussions strategy on the sidelines of various international mine action meetings. The MAWG’s main goal is to ensure that the realities of mine action work in the field are reflected in the global mine action policies developed by the international community. It seeks to assist State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty to achieve the goals outlined in the obligations of the treaty. The MAWG promotes the ICBL’s call for more resources for humanitarian mine action and works to ensure meaningful NGO participation in all relevant political and decision-making processes that define the parameters for mine action. Some recent activities undertaken by the MAWG in 2001 and 2002 are listed below.
Intersessional work program: The MAWG members worked closely with the Standing Committees Co-Chairs, Germany and Yemen, and co-rapporteurs Belgium and Kenya on the agenda and goals of the January and May 2000 meetings. In January, the MAWG made a longer intervention than usual in the form of a “Global overview of Mine Action and Outlook for the Future,” as agreed at the agenda setting meeting by the Co-Chairs held in Geneva in November 2001. On an invitation from the Co-Chairs, the MAWG agreed to provide a status report of the actual situation on the ground. The presentation made clear that at current levels of funding and clearance, many mine-affected countries would not meet the treaty’s ten-year deadline to destroy emplaced mines. The presentation also identified key needs: 1) realistic and appropriate funding to mine action; 2) more and appropriate information for decision-making, priority-setting and tasking in humanitarian mine clearance operations; and, 3) national strategic mine action plans.
The presentation led to a request by the German Co-Chair that ICBL continue its work in status reporting on mine clearance and efforts to address the identified needs. Germany also offered to fund such research through the ICBL and the MAWG hired a consultant on a short-term basis to prepare a further intervention for the intersessional meeting in May 2002.
In May, the MAWG presentation highlighted the lack of consistent reporting procedures on mine clearance activities by operators, and stressed the need to constructively embark on an evaluation of the size of the mine problem worldwide through various forms of survey (such as Impact Surveys and General Level 1 Surveys), and to assess the priority of mine clearance in order to meet cost efficiency as well as cost effectiveness. The MAWG emphasized the need for urgent attention to the ten-year deadlines, and again pointed to the difficulties many countries will have in complying, without resorting to the provisions for extending the deadline.
MAWG and issues related to mine action funding and activities: MAWG members participated in the Steering Committee Meeting for Mine Action in May 2002, chaired by the UN. Members also participated in an annual meeting of mine action program managers and advisors from 24-26 February, chaired by the UNMAS and hosted at the GICHD. MAWG members continued to represent the ICBL at meetings of the Mine Action Support Group (MASG), which convene the major mine action donors.
Survey Action Center: The Global Landmine Impact Survey by the Survey Action Center (SAC) includes several MAWG members in the Survey Working Group, which parents the SAC. The MAWG continued to call for support for the implementation of more impact surveys in the near future to improve information for strategic planning of humanitarian mine action.
Third Meeting of States Parties: The MAWG made two statements at the meeting during discussions on the work of the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Awareness and Related Technologies, outlining key points that the international community will have to address in order to solve the crisis of landmines. Among others, these included: acknowledging the low impact that research and development has had on work in the field, and the importance of targeting research and development to focus more on operational needs; the need for an increased focus on the improvement of equipment and technologies currently in use; the need for increased and sustained funding levels with longer term commitment from the donor community, as well as more flexibility in financial budgeting and planning of projects.
These points as expressed by the MAWG, were also stressed at several bilateral and other international meetings and venues during the second half of 2001. Among them, a meeting of orientation for the European Commission, informing the EC of key points in the humanitarian mine action work globally.
For any information please contact the chair, Sara Sekkenes, Norwegian People's Aid, email: sa@npaid.org.
The ICBL’s Mine Risk Education Sub-Working Group (formerly Mine Awareness Sub-group) was created during a meeting of the ICBL Mine Action Working Group (MAWG) in September 1999. The Sub-Group operates within the framework of the MAWG, reflecting the understanding of its members that MRE be viewed as an integral component of mine action. Members of the Sub-Group include representatives from the following organizations: Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines, Handicap International Belgium, Handicap International France, INTERSOS, Landmines Resource Centre (Lebanon), Mines Advisory Group, Norwegian People’s Aid, Rädda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden), and RaDO. Handicap International Belgium chaired the Sub-Group in 2001 and 2002.
The Sub-Group’s main objective is to serve as a resource on MRE issues for the ICBL and others. As part of the ICBL 2004 Action Plan, the ICBL General Meeting adopted the following MRE goals in March 2001: advocate, monitor and provide guidance to the international community as to where/what/how mine risk education is needed; advocate for and maintain a higher profile of mine risk education in Standing Committees, Meetings of States Parties and the mine action community; advocate and encourage development of more programs and improved sustainability of programs; and promote improvements in the quality of mine risk education programs.
The Sub-Group urged States Parties to shift mine risk education to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance and States Parties accepted this proposal in September 2001. The Standing Committee was subsequently renamed to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Awareness and Related Technologies.
Members of the Sub-Group delivered seven statements to States Parties, on the following subjects: International Workshop on the Design of Materials, Resources and other Media in Mine Awareness Programmes; Lessons Learned from Mine Awareness in Southern Afghanistan, Children's Role in Mine Risk Education, Evaluation of Effects, Situation and Needs in Most Mine-Affected Countries and The Mozambican Model [of MRE].
The Sub-Group co-organized a meeting together with UNICEF for all mine risk education operators (MRE Working Group) in Geneva on 30 May 2002.
The MRE Sub-Group established its own web page on the ICBL site: www.icbl.org/wg/maw.
The Group has established two email groups to facilitate discussion on mine risk education, one for members of the ICBL Mine Risk Education Working Group and another for the group and all mine risk education practitioners. For any information please contact the chair, Stan Brabant, Handicap International Belgium, email: stan.brabant@handicap.be.
