Author(s): Liz Bernstein <
> . Wednesday 19 January 2005 As the worldwide mine ban movement prepares to embrace the challenges that lie ahead on the road to a “mine free world”, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Executive Director, Anne Capelle.
A very experienced mine action practitioner, Ms Capelle has worked for a number of mine action organizations including Handicap International, UNMAS and most recently Landmine Survivors’ Network (LSN), where she was coordinating the “Raising the Voices” programme for the empowerment of landmine survivors. On 24 January she will take over from the outgoing coordinator, Liz Bernstein, in coordinating the activities of a network of 1,400 organizations working to rid the world of the plague of landmines.
“I am very happy to put my experience – accumulated through years of work at the side of persons with disabilities as well as in the political arena -- at the service of the ICBL, to contribute to the achievement of its ultimate goal, a world free of landmines and the suffering they cause,” said Ms Capelle.
The appointment of the ICBL’s new Executive Director came at the time of the Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World, the first review conference of the Ottawa Mine Ban Convention, which provided the opportunity to evaluate progress in the landmine struggle and produced an action plan for governments and the whole landmine community to tackle the outstanding landmine problems in the next five years.
The Summit also saw the active and numerous participation by campaigners and landmine survivors – largely the result of Ms Capelle’s work at LSN – and resulted in renewed energy and plans for the mine ban movement. After the Summit, the ICBL announced it will be governed by a new four-person management committee, assisted by a larger, 21-member advisory board representing a wide cross-section of the movement. Its members include: Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines, Brazil Campaign to Ban Landmines, Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines, Colombia Campaign Against Landmines, DanChurch Aid/Lutheran World Federation, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, ICBL Georgian Committee, Institute for Practical Research and Training (Somalia), IPPNW Kyrgyzstan, Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines, Kenya Coalition Against Landmines, Landmine Resource Centre (Lebanon), Landmine Survivors Network, Mines Action Canada, Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines, Nonviolence International Southeast Asia, Norwegian People's Aid, Protection (Egypt), Quaker UN Office and the Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Background Anne Capelle (39, Belgian) is a trained physiotherapist and worked with Handicap International (HI) for four years, both in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and in Angola, where she discovered the horror and extent of the landmine problem. From 1996 to 2000 she worked as coordinator of the Handicap International Mines Unit and was very actively involved in the work of the ICBL and participated in the establishment of the Landmine Monitor. After two years spent as director of communication and development for HI, she went to establish the UNMAS liaison office in Geneva. In 2004 she worked for Landmine Survivors Network where she was in charge of the “Raising the Voices” programme culminating in the organization of the Survivor Summit in Nairobi and the survivors participation to the Review Conference of the Ottawa Treaty.
Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines (TCBL) Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific P.O. Box 49, Sanam Pao Post Office Bangkok 10406 Thailand Tel: 66 2 640 9590: Fax: 66 2 271 3632 Email:
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