The WGVA was formed at
the ICBL General Meeting of February 1998 to strengthen the Victim Assistance
pillar of the campaign, and to serve as a resource to the ICBL, and others, on
victim assistance issues. As Article 6, Section 3 of the Mine Ban Treaty
requires states parties to “provide assistance for the care and
rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration of mine victims,”
the WGVA vigorously presses states to abide as seriously by that obligation as
they do others in the Mine Ban Treaty.
From nine original member organizations, the WGVA has grown to include more
than forty NGOs and country campaigns. Members share a commitment to increase
the level and quality of the local, national, and international response to the
situation of landmine victims worldwide. Landmine Survivors Network has
facilitated the group’s activities since its formation.
Key definitions
The work of the WGVA is based upon a definition of “landmine
victim” that includes individuals who have been directly hit by a landmine
explosion, their families, and communities. Mine victims include those who
have, either individually or collectively, suffered physical, emotional and
psychological injury, economic loss or substantial impairment of their
fundamental rights through acts or omissions related to the use of
landmines.[1]
Following this three-tiered definition of landmine victim, the concept of
victim assistance also involves multiple layers. On the level of individual
survivors, victim assistance includes interventions to provide for the care and
rehabilitation, and the social and economic integration of landmine victims.
The provision of prostheses is a critically important element of assistance to
these individuals, but is not the only type of intervention needed to ensure
their full rehabilitation and reintegration. Other components of comprehensive
victim assistance are: emergency and continuing medical care, physical
rehabilitation treatment, psychological and social support, employment and
economic integration programs. Efforts to enact legislation to protect the
rights of persons with disabilities including landmine victims, disability
awareness activities, and providing support to associations of landmine victims
or persons with disabilities are also forms of victim assistance. In addition,
victim assistance may include programs to ensure that socio-economic needs of
affected communities are met in the broader contexts of repatriation,
rehabilitation, and development strategies.
Goal areas
The goals of the WGVA have evolved somewhat since their formulation in 1998.
They include:
To secure increased levels of funding for victim assistance programs;
To promote a broad range of activities to meet the needs of landmine
survivors;
To promote inclusion of landmine survivors in decision-making, planning, and
implementation of programs and activities that concern them;
To advocate for the rights of landmine survivors; and
To facilitate information sharing about victim assistance among all relevant
actors.
Activities
Participation in Intersessional Work: In September 1999, the WGVA
began to shift its focus from internal activities to involvement in the
intersessional work of the SCEs. In the first round of meetings, the WGVA
coordinated a slate of eleven speakers and organized a number of further
interventions from the floor. It also produced a “Sample Portfolio of
Victim Assistance Programs” to encourage the development of a Global
Portfolio of Victim Assistance as an SCE project.
Action points from the first SCE meeting on Victim Assistance were so
numerous that for purposes of organization, the work was sub-divided into five
on-going “Network Groups.” The WGVA facilitates two of these
groups, Victim Assistance Reporting and Portfolio of Victim Assistance Programs.
We also produced recommendations papers on each of the five topics, and
participated, although minimally, in the other three groups. The groups
include:
Portfolio of Victim Assistance Programs: facilitated by WGVA
Victim Assistance Reporting: facilitated by WGVA/HI
Strategic Use of Guidelines: The WGVA encourages wide distribution and use
of all existing guidelines
Donor Coordination: The WGVA urges donors to support a range of activities
through a range of partners/implementers in a range of countries
Information and Data Collection: We promote the principle of data collection
without harm to individual survivors
Development of the
Portfolio of Victim Assistance Programs: As of March 2000, the Portfolio
had forty-eight one-page program descriptions representing a range of victim
assistance activities in twenty-one countries and seventeen organizations. By
September 2000, in time for the Second Meeting of States Parties, the Portfolio
will have at least doubled the number of entries. The following are excerpts
from the introduction to the March 2000 version of the Portfolio, which explains
both its purposes and its limitations:
The purposes of the Portfolio are:
To raise awareness among governments, donors, and program implementers on
the range of activities that constitute victim assistance.
To promote transparency among all actors in victim assistance.
To highlight needs that have not been addressed due to lack of
resources.
To facilitate contact and information sharing among actors in victim
assistance.
These limits of the Portfolio are important to clarify:
Programs included in the Portfolio have not been judged or evaluated by the
SCE-VA. Users are advised to make their own inquiries and judgments of the
programs.
The present edition is far from complete. Entries will be added on a
continuous basis; active solicitation of entries from local NGOs and government
programs is ongoing.
The Portfolio is not a substitute for in-depth investigation into a
country’s national priorities and plans. It is merely a tool to use in
the early stages of a full needs assessment.
The SCE-VA supports the principle that national level assessments, long-term
strategic planning, and government ownership of issues are crucial for the
development of sustainable responses to the problems created by landmines.
Programs included in the Portfolio do not necessarily contribute to the
operationalization of this
principle.