Co-chairs : Hungary Mr. Laszlo DEAK, Dept. for Security Policy and Arms Control, MFA
 
Mali Mr. M. Mamadou Albachir MAHAMANE, Legal and Consular Affairs Directorate, MFA
Rapporteurs : Malaysia Mr. Mohamed Ali RAZALI, Policy Division, MoD
 
Slovakia Ms. Maria KRASNOHORSKA, Ambassador, Dept. of the OSCE, CoU and Disarmement, MFA
Executive Summary Report In accordance with the relevant decisions of the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction, the Standing Committee of Experts on Stockpile Destruction (SCESD) held its second inter-sessional meeting on May 22-23, 2000 at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva . Logistical background for the meeting was provided by the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian De-mining (GICHD). Some 80 experts, including representatives of States Parties, non-States Parties, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, coordinated by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), took part in the deliberations of the SCESD, and had an in-depth exchange of views and experiences on a wide range of issues falling under the auspices of the SCESD. In the course of the two days of meetings, the SCESD conducted discussions in four sessions under the guidance of four moderators:
  1. Stockpile Destruction as Preventive Mine Action (Adrian Wilkinson, Mine Action Consultant, UNDP)
  2. Co-operative Structures for Stockpile Destruction (Ret. Gen. Gordon Reay, Advisor, Mine Action Team, MFA of Canada )
  3. Case Studies (Patrick Blagden, Technical Director, GICHD)
  4. The way ahead (Stephen Goose, Program Director, Human Rights Watch , USA )
The SCESD considered, among other issues:
  • ensuring political priority for stockpile destruction;
  • ensuring military co-operation with strict and effective civilian control;
  • transparency, monitoring, verification;
  • flow of information on available technologies, costs and environmental impact;
  • financial and technical assistance – bilateral, multilateral and regional approaches to stockpile destruction;
  • logistical, technical and financial considerations for proposed co-operative structures;
  • linking donors and recipients, funding for stockpile destruction;
  • modalities of transfer and storage of foreign stockpiles;
  • avoiding competition among the various branches and actors of mine action;
  • merits and constraints of various methods of destruction as experienced by individual countries;
  • financial, technical, social and environmental considerations;
  • planning and implementation of the process leading up to the actual destruction of stockpiles;
  • engaging the media and the public at large in the process of stockpile destruction;
  • reporting, monitoring and compliance concerns;
  • need for accounting and certification procedures;
  • assessing overall progress with regard to stockpile destruction, progress report on global stockpiles and their destruction;
  • compilation of databases on donors, recipients, needs, methods, options, companies, experts;
  • possible mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating Article 7 reports;
  • possible mechanisms for engaging non-States Parties in reducing their stockpiles.
Proposed action points and draft recommendations put forward during the SCESD meeting will be reflected in the report of the co-rapporteurs to be submitted at a later date, and will remain on the agenda of the SCESD for the Second Meeting of the States Parties to be held in Geneva on September 11-15, 2000, furthermore, for future activities following the SMSP. At the conclusion of its deliberations the SCESD envisaged that further conceptual and operational conclusions will be drawn before September 2000 with a view to the progress report to be submitted to the SMSP. At least one informal preliminary consultation (possibly in June or late August) is to be held in Geneva prior to the SMSP to shape the SCESD’s program and define its contribution to the SMSP.