Preparation for General Meeting: Coordination Committee

(Thursday 07 August 2003 ) TO: All ICBL Members/GM participants
FROM: Liz Bernstein
RE: Preparation for General Meeting: Coordination Committee

Hello all. As you know, the ICBL General Meeting is fast approaching. In preparation, I will send you a draft agenda shortly and remind you to send in any comments as soon as possible. One of the items, as you will have note, is Coordination Committee (CC) membership. I am sending you this memo in preparation for this item. Please read this memo of background about the CC

The Coordination Committee of the ICBL

The Coordination Committee of the ICBL has developed over time to reflect changes in the ICBL. The first "Steering Committee" was made up of the six NGOs that formally launched the ICBL in October 1992 -- Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, medico international, Mines

Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. These organizations had the responsibility to see that campaign activities jointly agreed upon were carried out.

As the ICBL changed, the steering committee became the "Coordination Committee," and now is made up of thirteen NGOs, campaigns and/or international organizations. Three ICBL ambassadors and ICBL staff members also sit on the CC. The membership of the CC attempts to balance regions, organizations that represent the 'three pillars' of the work of the ICBL, as well as international organizations that bring their unique perspective to the work.

There is an attempt to retain organizations with 'institutional memory' of the work of the ICBL, as well as bring fresh perspectives to the work, without over-taxing organizations or campaigns by asking them to take on the responsibility of the work of the CC. Most members of the CC are also on sub-committees of the CC, such as fundraising, finances, personnel, etc, in addition to being members or coordinators of ICBL working groups, which requires even more time than membership on the CC alone.

The current CC has been made up of:

• Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines (ACBL)
• Association for Aid and Relief (AAR/Japan)
• Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines (CCBL)
• Colombia Campaign Against Landmines (CCCM)
• German Initiative to Ban Landmines (GIBL)Handicap International (HI)
• Human Rights Watch (HRW)
• Kenyan Coalition Against Landmines (KCAL)
• Landmine Survivors Network (LSN)
• Lutheran World Federation (represented by Danish Church Aid) (LWF/DCA)
• Mines Action Canada (MAC)
• Norwegian People's Aid (NPA)
• South African Campaign to Ban Landmines (SACBL)

along with Ambassadors Tun Channareth, Jody Williams and Song Kosal and ICBL staff: Liz Bernstein, Susan Walker, Sue Wixley, Jackie Hansen, Sylvie Brigot and Kjell Knudsen.

In preparation for the September 2003 General Meeting, the current members of the CC were asked if they wished to continue to bear the responsibility of coordination of the work of the ICBL for the next year, through 2004, in light of ongoing post 2004 discussion, and 11 decided to continue (ACBL, AAR/Japan, CCBL, CCCM, HI, HRW, KCAL, LSN, LWF/DCA, MAC, NPA). The German Campaign (GIBL) has decided not to remain on the CC, but to step down, due to, time and capacity constraints. The SACBL will also step down.

The workload for CC members is considerable and can be taxing for many campaigns or organizations. The capacity of campaigns and organizations also changes as sometimes as happened in 2001 when two members -- the Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines and Physicians for Human Rights indicated that their human and other resources were overburdened and it would better serve the goals of the ICBL if they were to step down from the CC and concentrate their energies and work on their national ban campaigning. At the same general meeting the German Initiative to Ban landmines joined the CC.

Over the years as we have developed the ICBL, the following criteria have been recognized as desirable for consideration for participation on the CC. CC members should:

• have at a minimum, the equivalent of full-time work on the ban campaign;
• have a demonstrated track record of national and/or regional ban activities;
• have an established record of regular communication with ICBL structures;
• have the capacity to assume the responsibilities of working on the ICBL CC without weakening their own work on the national and/or regional level.

Communications within the CC is in English and the ICBL unfortunately does not have the financial resources for translation. CC members need the capacity to communicate in English at meetings and via email.

At this time if you would like to nominate yourself, another campaign or NGO for consideration for CC membership for the next year at the upcoming General Meeting, please send such a nomination to me by 15 August. It might be helpful for the process if whoever nominates the organization elaborates on how the entity nominated fills the criteria, and for any organization or campaign nominated, to indicate in writing their willingness to accept the nomination. Thank you very much.

Liz