Focus on landmine victims, says UN Deputy High Commissioner for human rights

BOGOTÁ (3 December 2009) – The UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, on Thursday urged states to focus their actions on landmine victims in especially vulnerable situations, such as children, women, and indigenous and rural populations.

“The way has been paved for a true mine-free world,” Ms. Kang said in her address to a landmine conference in the Colombian city of Cartagena, which coincided with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, “yet, there is little doubt that there are still many challenges ahead that require urgent and firm action.”

The Deputy High Commissioner told delegates attending the Second Review Conference of the State Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (also known as the Ottawa Convention), that the international community should concentrate its efforts on the victims of landmines.

“The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should serve as a vital instrument for all stakeholders involved in victim assistance,” Kang said. “Every day, countless victims of landmines worldwide struggle to restore their lives and dignity.”

Noting that the Cartagena Summit was considering requests for extensions of deadlines to the implementation of the mine clearance obligations, the Deputy High Commissioner urged the states that have signed up to the Ottawa Convention to take into account the negative effects of landmines on the civilian population, including on the enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights.

“We hope that the number of victims will drastically decrease every year, and that State parties will adopt the necessary measures to ensure that all survivors will be able to reconstruct their lives with dignity, respect and hope for the future,” Kang said.

“We at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,” she stressed, “will continue to work together with the members of the United Mine Action Team to assist Member States in achieving the ultimate goal of the Mine Ban Treaty: a world free of mines.”

In her first visit to Colombia, from 28 November to 4 December, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the southeastern department of Putumayo, on the border with Ecuador and Peru, where she saw first-hand the impact of landmines on the civilian population.

Ms. Kang held meetings in Bogotá with senior Colombian officials to discuss the human rights situation in the country and to foster cooperation over the next two years. She also met with representatives of the UN system, diplomats and civil society organizations.