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ICBL Landmine Update Feb 2004

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About Landmine Update
Landmine Update is a quarterly newsletter prepared and disseminated by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). It reflects the activities of the ICBL, its member organizations, its partner agencies and pro-ban governments in a three-month period. The main distribution is done through web and e-mail, all future and past issues are available at www.icbl.org/update/landmines. In preparation for major meetings of the landmines community special print editions will be made. Mostly these are abbreviated from what has been published on the web, please refer to the web edition for links to further information about the events described here. The ICBL solicits contributions to the Update, as well as any clarifications and comments. Contact the ICBL Coordinator, Liz Bernstein, at banemnow@icbl.org, tel. +1-202- 547-2667. Subscriptions through www.icbl.org/info/newsletter

Ban Treaty News

As of the sixth anniversary of the Mine Ban Convention, 141 countries have ratified the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and an additional 9 have signed it. The most recent accessions are Turkey (25 September), Serbia and Montenegro (18 September) and Belarus (3 September) and the most recent ratifications are Burundi (22 October), Sudan (13 October) and Greece (25 September).

The 2004 Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World, the First Review Conference for the Convention, is less than a year away and preparations have begun in earnest for this important milestone in the life of the Convention. Much of this period involved launching the Road to Nairobi.

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty (5MSP), held from 15-19 September in Bangkok, Thailand, the groundwork was well laid for the First Review Conference. A total of 118 countries, including 28 treaty non-signatories, participated in the meeting, as well as more than 200 non-governmental organizations representing 65 countries. It was indeed one of the most successful and productive such meetings to date. Three strong documents emerged from the Meetingthe Bangkok Declaration, the Final Report, and the President's Action Programme. See the ICBL's Report on Activities or visit: www.icbl.org/5msp

After leaving Bangkok global campaign focus shifted to Nairobi itself. The Nairobi Summit will be held from 29 November to 3 December 2004 in Nairobi. The Summit will mark progress since the birth of the Convention and chart the way forward for its full implementation and universalization. On 2 December at a ceremony on the anniversary of the Convention in Nicosia, Cyprus, ICBL Ambassador Jody Williams, Acting-President of the Republic of Cyprus, House Speaker Demetris Christofias and Austrian Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch launched the Road to Nairobi, a yearlong series of activities leading up to the Nairobi Summit. Visit: www.icbl.org/reviewconference. See Cyprus.

On 1 December in Geneva, Switzerland, the ICBL participated in informal consultations on the Nairobi Summit for States Parties, organized by Austrian President- Designate, Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch. Ambassador Petritsch asked the following countries to be "Friends of the President:" Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Norway.

The United Nations General Assembly's 58th First Committee Mine Ban Treaty Resolution was adopted on 8 December with 153 countries in favor, none against and 23 abstentions. The United Nations Security Council held a briefing on "the importance of mine action for peacekeeping operations" on 13 November in New York.

Campaign Action

The ICBL took advantage of having campaigners gathered together in Bangkok to hold the ICBL's Fourth General Meeting, from 20-21 September. 141 participants from 54 country campaigns of the ICBL and representatives of international organizations and ICBL staff attended the General Meeting, as well as 9 NGO observers from an additional 9 countries. The General Meeting received progress updates from thematic working groups and campaigners from each geographical region, yet the meeting focused primarily on the ICBL's future work. The meeting adopted the Bangkok-Nairobi Action Plan to guide the ICBL's work from September 2003 to December 2004 as well as an outline to for the ICBL post 2004. Visit: www.icbl.org/resources/gm03

Raising the Voices, a landmine survivor-advocate training project coordinated by Landmine Survivors Network on behalf of the ICBL Working Group on Victim Assistance, began recruiting participants from the Balkans and Former Soviet Union regions for their upcoming training program. Survivors will participate in the February 2004 Intersessional meetings and the Nairobi Summit.

On 11 November, representatives of the ICBL briefed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)'s Political Committee on the major findings of the Landmine Monitor Report 2003. The briefing took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels. ICBL representatives from Handicap International Belgium and the Belarus Campaign to Ban Landmines attended on behalf of the ICBL and participants included representatives of all of the 46 EAPC countries, except for Turkmenistan.

From 2-4 December the ICBL visited European Union (EU) representatives in Brussels including members of the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council. Meetings focused on universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty in Europe and the involvement of the EU in mine action and the Nairobi Summit. The European Parliament included a paragraph on landmines in its "resolution on the Council and Commission statements on the preparation of the European Council in Brussels on 12-13 December 2003."

On 13 November the Cluster Munition Coalition was launched at an event in The Hague, Netherlands. The new coalition, a group of over 85 civil society organizations from around the world, was founded to provide a coordinated, global response to the growing problems created by cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war. Visit: www.cmc-international.org

The CMC and several ICBL member organizations participated in the Annual Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in November in Geneva. The meeting concluded with a decision to adopt a new Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War, which will be annexed to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Next Step Productions began filming on location in Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Ukraine for the documentary "Disarm: A Film About Landmines". The 52- minute documentary film sets out to objectively document the international effort to rid the world of landmines. It will be previewed at the Nairobi Summit. Visit: www.nspfilms.org

The Night of a Thousand Dinners (N1KD) global fundraising event for the United Nations Adopt a Minefield program was held globally on 6 November.

In celebration of the 6th Anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty being opened for signature and the international day of persons with disabilities, the ICBL circulated two action alerts to help campaigners mark these important days.

Landmine Monitor researchers from the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East/ North African regions participated in regional Landmine Monitor and ICBL meetings to help prepare their reports for the 2005 Landmine Monitor Report, to be released on 18 November 2004.

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