Deputy Minister Vidar Helgesen

Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines

First Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty,
Nairobi, Kenya, 2 December

Mr President,

The Mine Ban Convention came about as a humanitarian response to a humanitarian crisis. This led to unprecedented partnerships and co-operation between governments and non-governmental and international organisations and between countries across traditional divides. These partnerships have been a key to the success of the Convention, and have represented a departure from conventional patterns of long-winded multilateral processes.

We must use this experience to make humanitarian mine action even more effective in the next five years, and to set clear goals for future assistance to those who are affected by the horrors of anti-personnel landmines.

Yesterday, I chaired a meeting on Mine Action in Sudan. The meeting focused on an emergency road repair project, carried out in co-operation with the parties to the conflict in Sudan, the World Food Programme, the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Norwegian People’s Aid. This project clearly illustrates how relevant and important mine action is to solving humanitarian problems and achieving peace and reconciliation. The roads are being opened by the Norwegian People’s Aid. This enables the World Food Programme to deliver food to returning refugees. This project also demonstrates how different parties can act together in order to achieve the goal of a mine-free and peaceful Sudan.

Article 5 of the Convention lays down an unequivocal obligation for all States Parties to clear all mines within ten years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State Party. The primary responsibility lies with the mine-affected countries. The contributions of the international community can only be a supplement to their efforts. National ownership and co-ordination of mine action operations, both at the local and the national level, are essential if the efforts of mine-affected states are to be effective and efficient. External mine action operators may be involved, but the ownership must lie with the mine-affected communities themselves.

Mine-affected countries are also responsible for meeting the needs of their landmine victims. The vast majority of mine survivors are civilians, many of them children. Their families and communities are also affected. Therefore, victim assistance must have a broad scope and include general health services and the physical, psychological, social and economic reintegration of people with disabilities. It must also include support to their communities. This is a long-term commitment, which needs to be part of the country’s general development plans and strategies.

Mr President,

Together with Nicaragua, Norway will chair the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance in the coming year. We will need the full participation of landmine survivors. Our work will focus on the challenges I have just mentioned. In addition, we will focus on better emergency medical care. We will also work towards the reaffirmation and realisation of basic human rights for landmine survivors. One important aspect of this work will be to make sure that the negotiations on a UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provide us with a strong and effective instrument for this purpose.

In 2002, Norway initiated the establishment of the Resource Mobilisation Contact Group within the framework of this Convention. To reach the goals of the Convention, we need to sustain the current funding level, and secure new sources of funding for mine action. It is equally important that the funds are used in the most cost-effective way. To address these issues, we need to keep mine action as simple, straightforward and field-based as possible. The mine action industry has developed enormously over the last 10 years, mostly to the benefit of mine-affected communities. However, mine action must never develop into a self-sufficient industry or bureaucracy that does not take proper account of realities on the ground and the obligations of the Convention. Norway will continue to concentrate our support to mine action programmes that focus on clearing the mines as effectively and efficiently as possible, while at the same time involving and developing local capacity based on national and local ownership.

Mr President,

The hallmark of the landmine process is the way it combines field experience and political action. This practical and operational approach must also guide our future work.

We, the States Parties, should now focus on strengthening our efforts in the field in order to achieve practical results. Only by doing this can we realise our objectives, which are to address the needs of landmine survivors and to prevent new victims by clearing all mines.