Wednesday 27 may

1. Opening of the meeting

The meeting was opened by its Co-Chairs, Mariela Fogante of Argentina and Angela Robinson of Australia. The Co-Chairs were supported by their Co-Rapporteurs, George Petmezakis of Greece and Gbara Awanen of Nigeria.

In opening the meeting, the Co-Chairs highlighted that they had developed a programme of work that included the following eight areas: (i) updates on implementation efforts by those 15 States Parties that were granted Article 5 extension requests at the 9MSP; (ii)  updates by States Parties that have indicated they may soon complete implementation of Article 5, (iii) updates on the preparation of extension requests and the status of implementation by those States Parties that indicated, at the 9MSP, that they would submit requests in 2009; (iv) updates by other States Parties that are in the process of implementing Article 5; (v) an assessment of the application of the recommendations considered at the 9MSP on practical methods to more rapidly release, with a high level of confidence, areas suspected of containing anti-personnel mines; (vi) a review of the status of mine risk education efforts; (vii) cooperation and assistance as it concerns Article 5 implementation, and (viii) updates on other matters that relate to the implementation of Article 5.

2. Overview of the status of implementation of Article 5

The Co-Chairs provided an overview of the status of implementation of Article 5.

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3. Updates by States Parties that were granted extensions on deadlines for implementing Article 5

At the request of the Co-Chairs and in order to assist the work of the Standing Committee, the ISU produced a compilation of the decisions taken at the 9MSP on each requests as well as milestones for progress spelled out by requesting States Parties last year.  This document was distributed to the meeting.

3.1 Updates were provided by the following States Parties, which were granted extensions of their deadlines for implementing Article 5: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Jordan, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, Senegal, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

3.2 The following delegations shared views or asked questions in response to the presentations that were made:  Norway, the ICBL, and the ICRC. 

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4. Updates by States Parties that may be able to report completion by the Second Review Conference

4.1 Updates were provided by the following States Parties that indicated that they may be able to report completion by the Second review Conference: Albania, Burundi, Greece, Serbia, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.

4.2 The following delegation shared views or asked questions in response to the presentations that were made: the ICBL.

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5. A review of the status of mine risk education efforts

5.1 The Co-Chairs highlighted that mine risk education had not been as widely discussed as other efforts to implement the Convention. The Co-Chairs recently initiated a discussion on the current state of mine risk education efforts with experts and service deliverers, the outcomes of which are contained in a non-paper which was presented to the Standing Committee.

5.2 Eric Filippino of the GICHD, who was involved in the recent expert discussions, presented lessons learned in mine risk education and ideas on the way forward.

5.3 The following delegations shared views or provided input on the matter of mine risk education and risk reduction in the context of the Convention: Afghanistan, Colombia, Jordan, Sudan, Handicap International, the ICBL, the ICRC,  UNICEF on behalf of UNMAT and UNMAS on behalf of the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT).

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THURSDAY 28 MAY

6. Updates by States Parties that indicated at the 9MSP that they will submit requests in 2009

The President of the 9MSP provided an update on the extension request process in 2009.

6.1 The following States Parties that have submitted requests in 2009 shared highlights of their requests with the Standing Committee: Argentina, Cambodia and Tajikistan.

6.2 The following delegations shared views or asked questions in response to the presentations that were made: Australia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the ICBL.

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7. Updates from other relevant States Parties on the status of implementation of Article 5

7.1 The following States Parties in the process of implementing Article 5 provided updates: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Cyprus, Guinea Bissau, Iraq, Mauritania, Sudan and Turkey.

7.2 In addition, Nigeria also took the floor on a related matter.
 
7.3 The following delegations shared views or asked questions in response to the presentations that were made: the ICBL and the ICRC.

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8. Cooperation and assistance in clearing mined areas

8.1 The Co-Chairs provided an opportunity for updates by States Parties and others in a position to assist those in the process of fulfilling Article 5 obligations, and by States Parties implementing Article 5 on their resource mobilisation strategies. The following delegations provided updates: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Jordan, Norway, Switzerland, the ICBL and UNMAS. In addition, the GICHD submitted its update in a written form.

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9. Closing remarks

The Co-Chairs delivered their closing remarks.

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