Assisting the victims is investment not a cost

Convention on Conventional Weapons Meeting
Side event on victim assistance in the context of
Convention on Cluster Munitions
Geneva- United Nations
February 18. 2009

Firoz ALIZADA - ICBL Geneva

The evolution in the field of Victim Assistance over the past decade shows an increasing awareness that the topic needs to be respected equally and to be considered as part of the States’ core plans and policies. The evolution began with the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty and has been developed in recent years by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and most recently the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The ten years of lessons learned through implementation of Mine Ban Treaty provided us with significant insights and gave us better ideas on how to provide efficient assistance to victims (meaning persons directly affected individuals, their families and communities) and persons with disabilities in general. But we can take nothing for granted. We need to maintain a lifetime commitment to bringing sufficient changes to the lives of victims.

I have been asked to speak about some of the lessons learned from the Mine Ban Treaty experience that can be applied to effective implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Many lessons were incorporated directly into the text of the convention, such as the need for a national focal point on victim assistance, a national plan of action and budget, including timeframes, mobilizing resources, and enacting effective laws and policies. In addition, I would like to make the following suggestions to help bring the treaty language into a reality:

- The Nairobi Action Plan was developed after five years of entry into force of MBT at the First Review Conference in Nairobi in 2004 which really helped to structure State’s work on victim assistance and their planning process. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a similar action plan, as soon as the Convention on Cluster Munitions enters into force, and not after five or six years.
- Consider victim assistance as part of long-term national development programs, mainstream victim assistance into national development plans and polices where possible
- Ask the victims and survivors what they need, what their priorities are and how they want to be assisted and continue to include them in all aspects of treaty implementation.
- Allocate a sufficient national budget for victim assistance, and develop the national capacity and national ownership, otherwise the assistance will not be sustainable.
- We all know victim assistance is a cross cutting issue, therefore coordination between the stakeholders is vital; it affects the chain of service delivery. Not only does coordination avoid duplications; it is also meant to fill the gaps and improve the quality of service provision.
o Let me give you an example from my country, Afghanistan, where coordination operates from grassroots to the provincial, regional and national levels.
§ Firstly at the grassroots level there is the coordination among the civil society organizations including organizations of persons with disabilities; they coordinate their services and their advocacy efforts to assist the government in improving victim assistance.
§ Secondly coordination meetings take place among disabled people’s organizations, national and international NGOs including the ICRC and the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled. This group covers all issues related to disabilities and makes suggestions to the third coordination body which is the decision making one.
§ Thirdly there is an Interministerial coordination group, where the high ranking authorities of relevant ministries attend. They are the decision makers and they focus mainly on the law and policy adaptations and developing plans. Donors and some representatives of NGOs attend these meetings too.
This example shows you that for effective victim assistance, governments should take responsibility for
- 1. assessing the needs of survivors
- 2. planning and coordinating victim assistance actions to address these needs
- 3. bringing all stakeholders together to exchange information, coordinate activities and learn from respective experiences
- 4. monitoring the coverage and quality of activities taking place
- 5 reporting on progress in-country and in relevant forums or transparency reports.

Assisting the victims and persons with disabilities is an investment in the human resources of a country and should not be seen as a cost, but rather an opportunity.

Thank you,