Panel 1 The spirit of Ottawa and its significance for Humanitarian Disarmament The adoption of the Ottawa Convention in 1997 was the result of a historic and unseen procedure. The strategic partnership between States, international organisations like the ICRC and the UN and civil society led to the first step in humanitarian disarmament, a convention with the sole objective to end the human suffering caused by a weapon, the anti-personnel mine. In the first panel, three major actors in what was called the Ottawa process will highlight the importance of this process for humanitarian disarmament from their respective point of view and testify to the uniqueness of the spirit of Ottawa. Ms Agnès Marcaillou, Director of UNMAS, is responsible for both the leadership of the UN interagency group for mine action, coordination of mine action responses, and for the execution of 17 UNMAS programmes on the ground. She will expand on the unique people- centred character of the Convention as well on the actual and future policy of the organisation. UNMAS has just drafted its new Mine Action Strategy which illustrates well the future engagement of the service for a world free of mines. As the first step in humanitarian disarmament, the Ottawa Convention built a bridge to international humanitarian law (IHL): the link between disarmament and IHL was established. Nicole Hogg, legal advisor at the Arms Section of the ICRC, will highlight this link and stress the growing importance of IHL in the disarmament fora. She will also explain the crucial role of the ICRC as the “guardian” of international humanitarian law. In 1997, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Jody Williams were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for being the driving force behind the adoption of the Convention banning antipersonnel landmines. Sylvie Brigot-Vilain will explain how the Mine Ban Treaty stopped the proliferation of antipersonnel landmines, how it is changing life for people living in mine-affected countries and what remains to be done to reach a mine-free world. She will also review how this approach of disarmament, in the context of human security and building on a partnership between states, civil society, the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as the United Nation, is being developed and strengthened to address current and new challenges linked to the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.
Ms Agnès MARCAILLOU Ms Marcaillou has had a distinguished career in the United Nations in New York, Geneva, The Hague, Iraq and Cambodia, with over 26 years of experience in peace and security matters including political affairs, conflict prevention, post-conflict interventions, disarmament and non-proliferation. In her newly assumed function (since April 2012) Ms Marcaillou oversees the UNMAS response to the needs of people and communities threatened by a wide array of conventional explosives, from mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war to Improvised Explosive Devices. In addition to leading the UN Service, she is the UN Focal Point for mine action, responsible for coordinating the mine action of UN departments, agencies, funds and programmes, and leading the broader humanitarian community's responses in the context of the Global Cluster for the Protection of Civilians. Prior to joining UNMAS Ms Marcaillou directed the Regional Disarmament Branch of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, providing leadership and strategic direction for the New York and UN regional centres for peace and disarmament in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and in Latin America and the Caribbean. During her career, Ms Marcaillou also served in The Hague as Chief of Staff of the 1st Executive Secretary of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Other notable roles include as UNSCOM officer responsible for chemical weapons inspections immediately after Iraq's 1991 cease-fire, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and special assistant to SRSG Akashi in the early days of the UN Mission in Cambodia. Ms Marcaillou, a former president of the Group on Equal Rights for Women at the UN, is known as a long-time advocate of the rights of women and the contribution of women to peace and security, as well as for pioneering the first gender action plan of the UN Secretariat. She is a fellow of the French “Institut des Hautes études de défense nationale”, and a laureate of the NATO and UN disarmament fellowship programmes. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Ec onomics and master ’ s and post- graduate degrees in Law and in Political Science.
Ms Nicole HOGG Nicole Hogg works as legal adviser in the Arms Unit of the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She joined the ICRC in 2003, initially as a delegate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and then in western Côte d'Ivoire, before spending several years as ICRC regional legal adviser in Australia. Since joining the Arms Unit in 2011, Nicole has worked primarily on the universalisation and implementation of the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention. She has published on the topic of women ’ s involvement in the Rwandan genocide. She holds bachelor ’ s degrees in Law and in French from the University of Melbourne in Australia and a Master of Laws from McGill University in Canada.
Ms Sylvie BRIGOT-VILAIN Sylvie Brigot-Vilain is the executive director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC). She has dedicated her career to ridding the world of antipersonnel landmines and, more recently, cluster bombs. Her studies on the peace agreement in Cambodia sparked her interest in the protection of civilians against indiscriminate weapons. Working as a grassroots campaigner with Handicap International in the mid-1990s, Sylvie was one of the activists responsible for the groundbreaking Mine Ban Treaty. She joined the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) as the Government Relations Officer in 2001, moving up to the position of Advocacy Director and then Executive Director in 2006. Under her leadership, the ICBL remained the authoritative civil society voice on landmines and deepened the role of landmine survivors in the campaign. Sylvie managed the merger of the ICBL with the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) – two of the most successful international civil society coalitions working on disarmament in history – and became the ICBL-CMC executive director in 2011. She now leads the global network in 100 countries in holding states accountable to their obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions. The ICBL and CMC have inspired other campaigns and created a model of partnership among NGOs, governments and the United Nations. Sylvie feels privileged to work with so talented and dedicated campaigners around the world. She is particularly inspired by the role of survivors and youth in the global movement and remains confident, after two decades of tireless campaigning, that in her lifetime there will be a world with no new victims of landmines or cluster munitions. She is convinced that the partnership between civil society and states is one of the most powerful for change. Sylvie holds a degree in international relations and a specialised diploma in development cooperation from La Sorbonne in Paris.
Major Lode DEWAEGHENEIRE After an operational career as a helicopter pilot for 15 years, Major Dewaegheneire joined the politico-military world by integrating the Strategy Department at the Belgian Defence Staff. Within the Department he is responsible for conventional disarmament and more specifically humanitarian disarmament (Ottawa Convention, Convention on Cluster Munitions, and Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons – CCW). Being member of the Belgian delegation for the Ottawa Convention since the 8th Meeting of States Parties in Jordan in 2007, Major Dewaegheneire rapidly became interested in the importance of the National Reporting as foreseen in Article 7 of the Ottawa Convention. He is actually the Coordinator of the Article 7 Contact Group under the Convention. In this capacity he is coordinating all efforts to make the national reporting more accurate and is promoting its importance for the full implementation of the Convention amongst the States Parties. He is also Coordinator for National Reporting under the Oslo Convention and under the Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War of the CCW allowing him to look for synergies in the field of transparency measures between these Conventions. Major Dewaegheneire holds a Master degree in Social and Military Sciences and a Master after Master degree in International Relations and European Integration.
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