Colloquium Brussels 28 March on the Ottawa Convention: The First Step towards Humanitarian Disarmament. Panel 2: Placing the people in the center Intervention by Umedjon Naimov, Ban Advocate and Hildegarde Vansintjan, Advocacy Officer Handicap International Brussels 1. Hildegarde Vansintjan: Excellencies, Generals, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, On behalf of Handicap International, I would like to thank Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid for her presence during this colloquium. We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude for her highness’s long standing commitment for victims of mines and cluster munitions. I would like to thank also the Belgian government, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, the royal Higher Institute for Defense and for the organization of this colloquium and the UN for his active involvement in it. We appreciate very much a mine survivor has been invited to take part in this panel. The title of this panel is: “ Placing the people in the center ”. F or Handicap International this means that the victim’s needs come first and that their voices have to be heard first. Therefore I would like to give the first and the last word to Mr. Umedjon Naimov, who is a mine survivor from Tajikistan and a member of the “ Ban Advocates ” project. 2. Umedjon Naimov: Dear All, First of all, please let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here among all of you and to participate at this important meeting. My name is Umedjon. I am from Kulob city in Tajikistan. I am 22 years old. I was 12 when I lost my leg in a mine accident at my grandmother’s house , while playing football with some friends. Suddenly, I heard a big explosion and when I woke up, I was in a bed at the hospital. I felt pain in my legs. It took me almost one year to recover. Later, I had to go back to the hospital again where I went through several surgeries.
Unfortunately I could not be cured and the doctor said that amputation was needed. This was a traumatic experience and I felt really isolated; even my family was depressed when thinking about my future. My family and especially my mom always trusted my capacities. After almost three years of treatment and recovery, I went back to school and I am now studying Information Technology at the Branch Technology University in Kulob. I was personally really lucky. Indeed, my family and especially my mom encouraged me to pursue my education and to keep going. It is extremely important for our self-esteem and for giving us the courage to continue. Not all survivors have this chance. From all my experiences and those of my fellow survivors I would like to share with you some lessons I learned: Urgent medical care should be available for all survivors. In remote areas it is not always the case and the first hours after the accident are crucial. Continued medical care and rehabilitation should be accessible to all victims for their lifetime. Education should be made accessible to all young survivors. People with disabilities are above all people with abilities. They want to have a future and actively take part within society. 3. Hildegarde Vansintjan Here I would like to share to with you some lessons learned from the 2012 Landmine Monitor Reports and the experiences of organizations such as Handicap International and their work with victims in affected countries. Victims and their families need psychological support after the accident and later on. In developing countries this kind of support is almost non- existent. Victims can give ‘peer support’ to other victims in addition to professional psychological support and show the family how important it is to encourage them. Services should be available to all victims and tailored to their needs, as men, women or children. Child survivors have additional needs in all aspects of victim assistance. May I include here some information from the 2012 Landmine Monitor Report. Child casualties accounted for 42% of all civilian casualties in 2011. In Libya, it’s even 64% ; in Yemen for instance up to 90%.
The good news is that there has been considerable decline in the number of new victims of anti-personnel mines over the past decade. It means that the Mine Ban Convention works. (States parties stopped producing and transferring them, millions of stockpiled mines have been destroyed, and large mined areas have been cleared. But after the land has been released the victims remain and their basic needs aren’t met at all or only partially. ) The Mine Ban Treaty renewed international law by including victim assistance in a disarmament treaty. In the meantime lessons have been learned from the Convention on Cluster Munitions. This Convention raised the bar on victim assistance and gave a broad definition of victims, including their families and communities. The moment has come for states to pay more attention to the affected communities and I’m glad Mr. Kerry Brinkert from ISU will have the opportunity to update us on this issue. It’s time for all states to make victim assistance accessible to all victims. The Cartagena Action Plan on the Mine Ban Treaty and the Vientiane Action Plan on the Convention on Cluster Munitions focus on accessibility of all services. Good, affordable and sustainable services should be accessible to all victims, even those in poor and remote areas. The Ban Advocates demonstrated how they have been empowered by the psychosocial support the find within the team of Ban Advocates and by the individual professional psychological support Handicap International provided. It’s a human right to receive this support if needed. Survivors indicate themselves that what they need most is a job: an income for their families. “Voices from the Ground” , the Handicap International report from 2009 has shown and it’s still valid. Therefore, Handicap International, warmly suggests states to include income generating projects in their victim assistance programs. While a better understanding of victim’s needs showed that their needs aren’t far from being met, the 2012 Landmine Monitor Report 2012 showed a dramatic decrease in victim assistance funding. Funding for Mine Action was the largest ever at almost 578 million euros in 2011, but victim assistance funding counted only for 6 % of the total mine action support. The top four of the countries supporting victim assistance (in percentages) are: the US, Norway, Australia and Belgium (according to the Monitor).
Unfortunately, the drastic shortfall in funding to victim assistance last year was not counterbalanced by resources available through broader disability or development programs. That means that projects had to end or cut back services. Therefore Handicap International calls on States to ensure that Victim Assistance planning is streamlined within other national development activities and states continue to also provide dedicated victim assistance funding until services through broader frameworks have developed the capacity to address the needs of survivors. And if states support victims through broader development programs, Handicap International would like to find those facts reflected in the Article 7 reports on the MBT and the CCM. If affected states report on their needs as well, the reporting - Belgium is responsible for - can be a useful instrument to improve victim assistance. The Monitor found that many of the most affected states have made progress in developing plans and victim assistance budgets. There is still more work to do in clarifying what national resources have been dedicated to Victim Assistance and what additional donor assistance is needed. However, the fact that progress has been made by affected states should be recognized and donor states should respond positively by providing assistance to help address this demonstrated need. With the ratification of Poland all European Union Member States are Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. They all have committed to continue funding assistance to victims for their life time and they are “in a position to do so”. We know that the European Union spent more than 2 billion Euros in a decade on Mine Action and we welcome the European Council Decision of November last year to provide more than 1 million for the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty including victim assistance. We dare ask to reinforce victim assistance support. It might not require huge funds; but vision, expertise and coordination. A small step for Europe could be a giant change in the life of a victim. And last but not least: The Cartagena Action Plan requires “ full inclusion and participation of victims ” . Donor states have to make sure that the affected states ensure meaningful inclusion of survivors in overall Victim Assistance efforts. They can play an important role from assessing the needs of the victims to
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