ICBL
Non- State Actor Working
Group
Under international humanitarian law, "in any armed conflict, the right of the parties to the conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited "It is prohibited to employ weapons of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. Weapons which are inherently indiscriminate and whose use violates "the public conscience" are also prohibited. The Main Ban Treaty and the Non-State Actors Working Group fully accept and promote these principles.
Landmines
Landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons. Their use is a violation of universally applicable international humanitarian law. During war, they victimize combatants and non-combatants with out discrimination and are as likely to kill and maim a child as an enemy soldier. They last long after wars are officially over. Denying access to precious land, water and infrastructure, these victim-activated weapons increase the difficulty of survival and impede post-war recovery and long-term development. Since 1992, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an Inter-national network of non-governmental organizations, has been campaigning against antipersonnel mines. In 1997, more then 120 governments signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mine (APMs), also known as the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT).
Non-State
Actors
The majority of armed
conflicts in the world today involve armed opposition groups who act
autonomously from recognized governments. These groups know as non-state actor (NSAs),
include rebel groups, irregular armed groups, insurgents, dissident armed force,
guerrillas liberation movement, and de facto territorial governing bodies. The
NAS Working Group believes that there are about 170 such non-state armed actor
throughout the world at the beginning of 2000. In ideology, objectives,
strategies, form and level of organization, support-base, legitimacy and degree
of international recognition, these NSAs vary greatly.
Non-State
Actors and Landmines
Although not all NASs use landmines, landmines are manufactured, used, and stockpiled by NSAs in many conflicts around the world. NSAs may have de facto control over mined land. The people in whose name they fight may face a serious landmines problem.
Efforts to eliminate the use of landmines have, up until now, focused chiefly on states.
The Mine Ban Treaty, accepted as an international standard, is open for signature by states, but not NSAs. However, the majority of landmines are laid in the context of armed conflict where both states and non-state armed forces may be laying mines. The anti-landmine campaign, like any serious attempt to mitigate of war and contribute to the achievement of peace, must face the reality of non-state actor operating independently of governments. To achieve a truly universal ban on antipersonnel mines, non-state actors must be engaged in the ban process.
An increasing number of NSAs have acknowledged the need to reconsider their use of landmines. Unilateral statement and bilateral agreement with clear references to mines have been made by non-state armed groups in Sudan, the Philippines, Somalia, Colombia, Western Sahara, Kosovo\Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan, among others. Some of these groups have already publicly committed themselves to a ban on landmines use. Others have indicate their willingness to make a renunciation of mines, contingent on their opponent governments doing the same. Still others appear willing to support mine clearance and victim assistance programmes in areas under their control. These promising developments encourage a systematic and concerted approach to engaging NSAs in the landmines ban. NAS adherence to a total ban may, in addition, help pressure their government opponents to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use of landmines by NSAs in major armed conflicts during the 1990s makes it clear that an inter-state ban alone is insufficient to stop new landmines from being put into the ground.
Our
Mandate
The Non-State Actors Working Group was established by ICBL to address the important issue of NSAs and landmines use. This involves developing a complementary process to engage NSAs in an unconditional ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of landmines and obtaining the cooperation of in integrated mine action (including minefield marking, mine clearance, mine awareness, assistance for the care and rehabilitation and social and economic integration of mine victims, reconstruction and capacity-building in all mine action areas).
Our
Approach
There are no such things as "good landmines" and "bad landmines". Whoever uses them, for whatever end, they are illegitimate, inhumane weapons. Landmines are sometimes described as a "poor man's weapon" because they are affordable to armed groups who do not have access to modern weapon systems. They could better be described as a weapon against the poor because they hurt the poor most and exacerbate poverty. The NSA Working Group is committed to impartial application of the principles of international humanitarian law and a total ban on antipersonnel mines.
The NSA Working Group is committed to engaging NSAs through a persuasive and inclusive process of dialogue and education, appealing to appropriate legal and normative reference points and to political self-interest.
The NSAs Working Group believes that, wherever possible, NSAs must be approached in consultation with the communities affected. Careful attention must be given to the political contest and to the impact of landmine work on other initiatives aimed at establishing a just and lasting peace.
"When a farmer steps on a mine in the hard won peace, she doesn't ask if it was a mine laid to oppress or to free her, she simply steps on the mine and her family goes hungry".
-Rae McGrath, Mines Advisory Group founder-
Our Work
The Working Group coordinates the work of member-organizations and works through or in collaboration with other ICBL country campaigns and working groups in the effort to engage NSAs.
Since 1997, members of the NSA working group have been approaching NSAs in East and South Asia, Latin America, North and East Africa, and southern Europe to discuss the landmines problem with them and to seek their commitment to a ban .
The Working Group promotes and disseminates research and information related to NSAs and landmines.
Engaging NSAs in a Landmine Ban: A Pioneering Conference
The Conference, held 24 and 25 March 2000 in Geneva, brought together experts from the ICBL, other NGOs, and international organizations with representatives of NSAs and government observers to discuss the problem of landmines as it relates to non-state actors.
The Conference was hosted by the Swiss Campaign in cooperation with five other country campaigns in Canada, the Philippines, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. Conference documentation is available on our website.
Guidelines for Engaging
Non-state Actor in a
Landmines Ban
Drawing on the pioneering
conference and the experience of humanitarian organizations and country
campaigns working with NSAs, the NSA Working Group is developing framework
guidelines to establish consistency and coherence, while maintaining
flexibility, in the approach of its member-organizations to NSAs.
Research material is
available on the website maintained by the
Working Group, www.icbl.org/wg/nsa
Linking
with other initiatives
The Working Group draws on
the expertise and network of other international groups and individuals in
drawing up its operative framework for engaging NSAs and in facilitating the
varied aspects of NSA work.
ISCE
Process.
The Working Group links with the Ottawa process through the Intersesional
Standing Committee of Experts (ISCE) on General Status and operation of the
Convention-a forum for state parties and signatories to the MBT and relevant
organizations like ICBL and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to
coordinate progress on treaty implementation. The Intersessional Work Program is
also open to non- signatory states.
Landmine Monitor.
Landmine Monitor is an ICBL initiative to monitor the implementation of the Mine
Ban Treaty and the continuing landmine crisis. The Working Group on Non State
Actors contributes to the monitoring of NSA-related aspects of the landmine
equation.
Geneva Call.
The Geneva Call is an independent, international, non-governmental mechanism for
NSAs to commit themselves to a total ban on antipersonnel mines and to other
humanitarian norms (especially as articulated in the Geneva Conventions and
Protocols) as a basis for their accountability. To this end, it serves as an
impartial channel of communication with NSAs. The Geneva Call can be reached at geneva.call@gkb.com
or at Casa Postal 334, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
Non-State Actors
Database
The Non-State Actors Programme is independently hosted by International Alert, a
conflict resolution organization with Unite Nations consultative status, based
in London. The NSA programme runs a global database and documentation unit on
NSAs in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, providing fact finding service
for campaigners and fieldworkers in the area of International humanitarian law
and conflict resolution. The NSA Database's regional and country survey of NSA
are available from nsadba@international-alert.org
or fax no. 44.207.793 7975.
Who
we are and how to reach us
Promoted by anti- landmine
campaigners from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the ICBL NSA Working Group was
initially instituted as an ad hoc ICBL Working Group in 1997 with the Colombian
campaign as chair. In May 1999, the ICBL NSA Working Group was formally
established
The NSA Working Group
includes the following national campaigns:
Afghan Campaign to Ban
Landmines. Australian Network of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Colombian Campaign Against Landmines. India Campaign to Ban Landmines. Irish
Campaign- Pax Christi. Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines. Kenya Coalition
Against Landmines. Mines Action Canada. Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines. New
Zealand Campaign to Ban Landmines. Pakistan Campaign to Ban Landmines. Palestine
Campaign to Ban Landmines. Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines. South Africa
Campaign to Ban Landmines. Swiss Campaign to Ban Landmines. Thai Campaign to Ban
Landmines. Landmines Action ( UK). Zimbabwe Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Our URL: www.icbl.org/wg/nsa
The working Group can be contacted through its co-chairs
Philippine Campaign to Ban
Landmines
Miriam Coronel Ferrer
mferrer@kssp.upd.edu.hp
Tel/fax +63-2 9205428
Soliman Santos Jr.
gavroche@mail.info.com.ph
Mines Action Canada
Paul Hannon
macpaul@web.net
Tel +1 613 241 3777
Fax +1 613 244 3410
or through
ICBL coordinator, Elizabeth
Bernstein,
at banemnow@icbl.org