| <MINE ACTION WORKING GROUP | NON-STATE ACTORS WORKING GROUP> |
Since its inception in February 1998, the ICBL’s Working Group on Victim Assistance (WGVA) has had these general goals:
|
The WGVA is chaired by the Landmine Survivors Network, and has 98 members representing approximately 40 organizations and country campaigns. In 2001 and 2002, the WGVA’s main efforts included collaboration with the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration on the content of the intersessional work, publication and dissemination of the 2001 Portfolio of Victim Assistance Programs, and implementation of the Raising the Voices program.
A main focus of the WGVA in 2001 and 2002, as in past years, was participation in the Mine Ban Treaty’s intersessional work program and the Third Meeting of States Parties. Continued collaboration with the co-chairs and co-rapporteurs on the content of the agenda, on the selection of expert speakers, and on the aims of the meetings proved extremely beneficial in a number of ways. In particular, it allowed aspects of victim assistance that were not made explicit in the treaty to become part of the general discourse of the Standing Committee. Many issues were raised that would have otherwise been neglected or avoided. The collaboration allowed governments, NGOs and international organizations to become allies on some issues and to better understand different positions on other issues. Finally, the collaboration has allowed for more perspectives, ideas, strategies, and mutual accountability among the various actors in victim assistance than would have ever been possible in a more limited forum. For these reasons, the WGVA will continue to make this collaboration an important part of its work.
The WGVA views the links between mine victim assistance and broader disability issues and the international human rights framework as fundamental to advancing the rights of landmine survivors and all persons with disability. Following an intervention by Mexico on its initiative to establish a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, the WGVA endorsed this effort and worked to ensure that disability and human rights was included in each session of the Standing Committee. The WGVA has viewed the momentum for such a Convention and the momentum created by the Standing Committee to improve victim assistance as mutually reinforcing and beneficial.
Given that there the Mine Ban Treaty does not include any explicit deadlines or other criteria for “success” in victim assistance, the Standing Committee initiated a consultative process facilitated by UNMAS to focus and clarify the Standing Committees targets for actions in the lead up to the 2004 Review Conference. The WGVA played a key role in this process. It is too early for the process to have reached definitive conclusions, but four preliminary trends did surface. These were the need for: national level planning for victim assistance by States Parties; improved quality and coverage of prosthetics services in mine-affected countries; emergency medical care that extends to mine-affected areas; and a focus on economic reintegration programs for landmine victims.
The fourth edition of the “Portfolio of Victim Assistance Programs” was prepared for distribution to the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001, and is available in hard copy and on-line at www.landminevap.org. The compilation consisted of 119 program descriptions from 79 organizations in 39 countries.
The VAWG members worked hard to encourage more organizations to submit information to the Portfolio to provide a more comprehensive picture of available services, especially those programs that build local capacity. A fifth edition of the Portfolio is in preparation for release to the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2002.
“Raising the Voices” is a leadership and advocacy training program for landmine survivors established in early 2001 to facilitate the inclusion of landmine survivors in Mine Ban Treaty-related processes. Landmine Survivors Network facilitates the program on behalf of the WGVA. Mine Ban Treaty processes have, from the beginning of the campaign, included survivors. Several survivors are official ambassadors for the ICBL and regularly travel around the world devoting their energies to the campaign. “Raising the Voices” is, in part, a “second wave” of this practice, and is intended to increase the number of landmine survivors who have the vision, experience, confidence, tools, and opportunities to promote the cause of all survivors.
The training prepares survivors to participate meaningfully in the substantive work of the Standing Committees, especially the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance. The survivors’ stories and their input to the Committee serve two purposes. They enrich delegates’ appreciation of what survivors experience, and provide a channel through which survivors’ voices are regularly taken into account within the workings of the committee.
The first cycle of “Raising the Voices” brought eight landmine survivors from Latin America to the May 2001 intersessional meetings in Geneva and to the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001 in Managua, Nicaragua. Since their graduation from the program, these survivors have been involved in various activities promoting victim assistance, the Mine Ban Treaty, and the rights of people with disabilities. The Raising the Voices program coordinator has maintained contact with these survivors and provides guidance and feedback, and coordinates additional trainings for the group.
Fourteen survivors from Africa participated in the training program and offered input into the second round of intersessional meetings in 2002. The French/English speaking group of survivors from Chad, Eritrea, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda highlighted the need for literacy training for survivors in the January 2002 session of the Standing Committee. The Portuguese/English speaking group included survivors from Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Sudan. The group chose to highlight economic integration at the Standing Committee in May 2002 and advocated that all other forms of assistance should ultimately lead to one goal, that survivors be able to earn a living, and to sustain themselves and their families.
Three graduates of the program returned in May 2002 to discuss the work they have done since the training. Nelson Castillo, a landmine survivor from Ecuador, literally changed the law in Ecuador so that disabled military can now continue in military service after their injury rather than be discharged without a living pension or retraining. Danis Hernandez of Nicaragua spoke about his work with the Organization of American States (OAS) in reaching out to rural communities in the countries of Central America to bring mine risk education to these populations. Margaret Arach of Uganda spoke about her counseling work with women landmine survivors and economic reintegration for persons with disabilities.
More details on ICBL Working Group (WG) activities are available on the ICBL website at http://www.icbl.org/wg.
