Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
3-5 May 2004
Over 70 researchers and 40 campaigners and friends of the ICBL from 70 countries met in Sarajevo from 3-5 May 2004 for their annual global meeting. The Sarajevo meeting concludes a series of regional workshops held between November 2003 and April 2004 in Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Tajikistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
There were three major components in the agenda of the Sarajevo meeting: workshops on advocacy and research topics, Landmine Monitor discussions on country updates for the 2004 report, and field visits to mine action and victim assistance projects in and around Sarajevo. The participants also met twice in regional groups to discuss their activities leading up to the Nairobi Review Conference of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty/Summit on a Mine Free World.
Ms Jody Williams, co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize together with the ICBL, Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch of Austria, the UN’s former High Representative in Bosnia and President-Designate of the Nairobi Review Conference, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia, Ms. Lidja Topic opened the conference on 3 May. Williams and Petritsch subsequently accompanied media on a field visit to demining sites around Sarajevo.
The participants attended a series of workshops on a range of topics including campaigning on mine action and victim assistance, media and advocacy activities in the lead-up to the Nairobi Summit, domestic legislation, research experiences, and computer/Internet training, and presentation skills. Landmine Monitor researchers met individually to discuss their 2004 research, as well as publication strategies for the 2004 report and ICBL involvement in the period following the 2004 Review Conference.
This marked the ICBL’s first meeting in a mine-affected country of Europe. Bosnian NGOs and agencies engaged in mine action held an open event for the participants to talk about their projects on demining, mine risk education, and victim assistance. Speakers included Bosnian government representatives and the director of the Slovenian International Trust Fund for Mine Action, the largest donor for demining and mine victim assistance in the country. The conference participants also visited demining sites run by Norwegian People’s Aid and Intersos, mine risk education classes in schools taught by the Red Cross and Genesis, and a prosthetics center with Landmine Survivors Network.
A number of observers participated in the conference from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Mine Ban Treaty’s Implementation Support Unit (ISU), and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).
The ICBL and Landmine Monitor are grateful to the Bosnian offices of Handicap International and Norwegian People’s Aid for hosting of the meeting. We are especially grateful to the tireless organizing team: Damir Atikovic (NPA), Melissa Sabatier and Nina Taindzic (HI), Loren Persi (ICBL), Sue Wixley (ICBL), Nancy Ingram (MAC), Suada Hadzic, and Ermina Mešić. The meeting took place at the Hotel Grand near the city centre.
The 2004 draft country reports are now in the hands of Landmine Monitor’s editing team. Regional research coordinators have until the end of June 2004 to deliver their initial edits of the country updates to the final editing team at Human Rights Watch. The report will undergo two more extensive edits and will go to print no later than 30 September, together with its Executive Summary.
The Landmine Monitor is a unique civil society verification initiative by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). Its sixth report, Landmine Monitor Report 2004, is due for release on 18 November 2004, days ahead of the opening in Nairobi, Kenya of the Mine Ban Treaty’s First Review Conference.
Posted by Briana Wilson at 16:21, 01 June 2004