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The Convention's Committee on Victim Assistance briefed States Parties on Maputo Action Plan commitments

26.11.2014


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On Monday 24 November, the Convention's Committee on Victim Assistance briefed representatives of States Parties on Maputo Action Plan commitments to ensure that measurable improvements have been made in the well-being and the guarantee of the rights of landmine victims, in time for the Convention’s Fourth Review Conference in 2019.

The briefing was supported by the Implementation Support Unit and featured the participation of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its member organizations, including, Handicap International and the Gender and Mine Action Programme.

It was held further to the Committee’s mandate to “provide advice and support in a cooperative manner, to States Parties in the fulfilment of their commitments under the Maputo Action Plan.”

The Maputo Action Plan expresses our aspiration that improvements will have been made during the period of the implementation of the Action Plan and emphasises that these improvements will be measurable,” said Committee Chair, Norman Lizano of Costa Rica.

“In order for it to be possible to measure improvements, it is necessary to know what the situation is now and what it is intended to be by 2019, or during interim periods leading to 2019,” said the Committee Chair.

The Director of the Implementation Support Unit, Kerry Brinkert, recalled that the logic of the Maputo Action Plan is to make victim assistance measurable and thus able to be treated with the same precision and intensity as other aims of the Convention.

“The Maputo Action Plan sees States Parties commit to assess needs, the availability and gaps in services and support, and existing or new requirements, thereby establishing a baseline against which improvements will be able to be measured. Furthermore, the Maputo Action Plan sees States Parties commit to express what those improvements should be and when they will have been made” said Kerry Brinkert.

At the briefing, the ISU presented a conceptual tool to assist the States Parties in meeting their commitments by 30 April 2015, a date which coincides with the Convention’s deadline for the submission of annual transparency reports.

"The Implementation Support Unit stands ready to assist States Parties in acting upon their Maputo Action Plan commitments,” added the ISU’s Implementation Support Specialist, Paramdeep Mtharu, noting that many States have already furnished a great deal of pertinent information in the context of fulfilling obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Maputo Action Plan’s victim assistance commitments are relevant for “each State Party with landmine victims in areas under its jurisdiction or control,” and particularly important for those 29 States Parties that have indicated that they are responsible for significant numbers of mine victims.


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