Gender Mainstreaming the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World: Victim Assistance
The Mine Ban Convention requires that "[e]ach State Party in a position to do so shall provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration, of mine victims and for mine awareness programs.” This makes it the first multilateral disarmament treaty requiring states to take responsibility for victim assistance.
Positive evolutions were set out during the Nairobi Summit in 2004 (First Review Conference of the Mine Ban Convention), notably concrete actions for victim assistance (VA) and the modification of the term victims to include the family and community of the direct victim. Nevertheless, recent studies show that VA implementation in mine-affected countries still remains insufficient.
This article affirms that, in order to be more effective, sustainable and equitable for the women, girls, boys and men of mine affected communities, VA needs to be gender sensitive. The different impacts of landmines on women, girls, boys and men are outlined and the disadvantages that female victims face are highlighted. Finally some recommendations on how to take gender into consideration in VA are presented.
