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Organization: International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)
The following information may be cited or quoted as long as the source is accurately mentioned and the words are not taken out of context.
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Postal address of organization/institution

7-9 rue de Cornavin, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland

E-mail address of organization/institution

icbl@icbl.org

Website address of organization/institution

www.icbl.org

Telephone of organization/institution

+41 22 920 0325

PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN RIGHTS
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION
INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity

INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace?

The ICBL is itself a coalition of NGOs and individuals in over 70 countries. The ICBL is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Cluster Munition Coalition.

ACTIONS: What activities have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010 report.

The ICBL works towards a world free of landmines and cluster munitions, where the treaties banning these weapons are fully universalized and implemented, and where mine and cluster munition survivors, their families and communities see their right respected and can lead fulfilling lives. The ICBL and its founding coordinator Jody Williams received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty. Since then, the ICBL brought its collaboration and shared its knowledge to also bring about the new Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Our network includes human rights, humanitarian, children, peace, disability, veterans, medical, mine action, development, arms control, religious, environmental and women's groups. While our members carry their activities in a variety of ways, they regularly share political strategies, campaign activities, achievements and ideas on how to address challenges. This exchange of information among the different countries plus the hard work of the national campaigns to ban landmines have created and maintained the momentum of the ICBL.  

In countries affected by landmines and cluster munitions, we believe our work contributes to post-conflict reconstruction, consolidation of peace and sustainable development. Trough our national campaign mobilization and support programme, we contribute to strengthening the voice of civil society in many countries and we empower non-governmental organizations on the long term, encouraging them to closely work with their governments on implementing international humanitarian law and human rights.

Many ICBL members are involved humanitarian demining, mine risk education or victim assistance. As a network, the ICBL mainly plays an advocacy role, raising the voice of civil society with decision makers.

Advocacy efforts in 2001-2010 included outreach to governments through lobbying meetings with delegates to the United Nations in Geneva and New York as well as ongoing dialogue with government representatives at the national level; active participation in all the official Mine Ban Treaty meetings through the delivering of statements and the dissemination of explanatory materials; correspondence; staff missions supporting in-country advocacy; communication tools shared with campaign members to encourage coherent campaigning worldwide; providing information to the public; as well as reaching out to the media and acting as an expert resource.

The ICBL’s advocacy work is largely informed by its research and monitoring project, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, which collects information and assesses the international community's response to the global landmine, cluster munition and explosive remnants of war problem.

PROGRESS: Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of action and in your constituency during the second half of the Decade?

The ICBL's domain of action, in a nutshell, is the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions. It covers aspects such as non-use of these weapons; clearance; stockpile destruction; and assistance to survivors, their families and communities.

The Mine Ban Treaty, adopted in 1997, has turned the vision of a mine-free world into a reality we can achieve in our lifetime. Use of antipersonnel mines is now a rare occurence and trade is almost non-existent. More than 42 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed, never to take a civilian victim. Mine action programs have grown in leaps and bounds, and a large amount of land is being cleared annually and returned to productive use. But the landmine problem is not solved yet and needs the continued energy of all actors.

The Mine Ban Treaty gave birth to a new kind of diplomacy, wherein humanitarian issues are addressed through the partnership of like-minded states, civil society, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. We saw this partnership in action again in the second half of the decade with the process that led to the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008.

The second half of the decade was marked by the adoption of the new Convention on Cluster Munitions (2008), and by the adoption of the Cartagena Action Plan (2009) by over 120 governments, a clear and concrete roadmap of what is required over the next five years to bring us significantly closer to a mine-free world.

OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?

The ICBL's domain of action, in a nutshell, is the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions. It covers aspects such as non-use of these weapons; clearance; stockpile destruction; and assistance to survivors, their families and communities.

Assistance to survivors, their families and communities is the aspect of mine action where the least progress has been made in the last decade, with funding and action falling far short of what is needed. Most efforts remained focused only on medical care and physical rehabilitation, often only when supported by international organizations and funding, rather than on promoting economic self-reliance for survivors, their families and communities. Services are too unsystematic an unsustainable to improve the living conditions of most in any lasting way. Even when services for survivors exist, they are often unaccessible: too long distance from mine-affected areas, too expensive for survivors to afford, or bureaucratically off-limits to one group or another. In addition, survivors and their survivors' rights organizations continue to indicate that they are not included in planning and in policy-making processes, and that they are not consulted on what they perceive as gaps in services.

The pace of Mine Ban Treaty universalization has slowed down in the second half of the decade, and came to an apparent halt with no new accessions/ratifications since November 2007. Some major stockpilers of antipersonnel mines remain outside the treaty, such as India, Russia and the United States. Promoting universal adherence to the Mine Ban Treaty and ban norm remains one of ICBL’s priorities.

PLANS: What new engagements are planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence?


GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??

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Organization: International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)

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