Olivia R. Fernandes is a humanitarian practitioner with 8 years of experience managing emergency projects globally. Her work spans the areas of humanitarian mine action, emergency health, post-conflict rehabilitation, and is focused on the Rights of Migrants and Refugees, Rights of the Child, Rights of Indigenous People, and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She has lived and worked in Grand Council Treaty 3, Nishanawbe Aski Nation, Siksika Nation, Viet Nam, Somalia, Nepal, India, and most recently, Afghanistan. She is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Landmine Foundation. Olivia believes in the importance of recognizing and addressing humanity and human behaviour in all development and humanitarian endeavours. She will be heading to Afghanistan next week to continue her important work. Her talk today was “Modern Day Mines”
Landmines are a forgotten legacy of war.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world. To date, there are 164 state parties to the treaty while 32 UN states, including China, Russia, and the United States have not; making a total of 33 United Nations states not party. The Canadian Landmine Foundation is actively engaged in eliminating these AP-mines.
The 5 pillars of mine action are:
- Clearance – this can either be done in a technical way by professionals or simply by having the population report.
- Explosive Ordnance Risk Education – for community members and especially children to identify ordnance. Especially necessary in poor countries. The Mine Ban Treaty requires States Parties to “provide an immediate and effective warning to the population” in all areas under their jurisdiction or control in which antipersonnel mines are known or suspected to be emplaced. In Afghanistan Olivia will be working with Save The Children
- Victim Assistance – Olivia gave an example of where a bread winner in a family loses a limb or sight. Not only do they lose their income but also their values to society and their dignity. Their group provides artificial limbs and other supports.
- Stockpile Destruction – So far, signatories to the Treaty have destroyed more than 55 million Anti Personal Devices (previous called IEDs).
- Advocacy – Olivia told some of her own story about coming to Canada. She is a very passionate advocate for the cause of landmine elimination.
The website for the Canadian Landmine Organization is: https://canadianlandmine.org/
And that for The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) is: https://www.gichd.org/