Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines (OAS-AICMA)

OAS Anti-Personnel Mine Action Program (AICMA-OAS)

Data

Status

Active

Start

1991

Implementation

Social Networks

@OEA_SegPublica

For more than 30 years, AICMA-OAS has provided financial, technical, logistical, and administrative support to Member States that require assistance for their national demining plans. Since then, the Program has benefited 10 member states. The Program supports a series of components in mine action, including:

(a) Humanitarian Demining;

(b) Mine Risk Education;

(d) Destruction of stockpiled mines and

(f) Promotion of the prohibition of the use, storage, production, and transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines.

With each of its components, AICMA-OAS aims to improve the living conditions and security of communities impacted by Anti-Personnel Mines.

Currently, AICMA-OAS is active in Colombia and has collaboration agreements with Ecuador and Peru.

AICMA-OAS IN COLOMBIA

The role of AICMA-OAS has changed over the past twenty years in Colombia. Now, the Program's primary purpose is to assist the Government in implementing an External Quality Management system for Humanitarian Demining. These efforts help ensure continued improvement of land release activities. AICMA-OAS seeks to maximize the security, efficiency, and effectiveness of operations in Colombia and, above all, looks to establish a sustainable national capacity.

AICMA-OAS also implements projects for Victim Assistance, Mine Risk Education, and Community Liaison. Additionally, since 2022, AICMA-OAS has been supporting the government of Colombia by providing advice on technical aspects related to the sector's operational efficiency, capacity strengthening, enhancement of the technical framework, and assistance in security analysis management, in coordination with MAPP-OAS.

IMPACT WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF PEACE

Since 2022, AICMA-OAS has assisted the Colombian Government in making mine action operations more efficient. AICMA-OAS is a key stakeholder in the support of the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement in Colombia. The Program has expanded its operations significantly and has focused on implementing an Emergency Mine Risk Education Model (MRE), including Rapid Response (RR) MRE. This model is an extraordinary measure to promote immediate risk education actions to reduce the loss of life and the danger of Explosive Ordnance.

Similarly, AICMA-OAS collaborates with the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP-OAS) to provide guidance to the mine action sector on security issues in territories where safety and security conditions are not met, and where humanitarian demining operations have not yet commenced. This joint effort is highly significant, as statistics indicate that new explosive devices are being deployed in areas previously deemed safe, reflecting the evolving dynamics of the armed conflict in Colombia.

AICMA-OAS, as the entity responsible for the integration of the anti-personnel mines sector within the framework of quality management, has incorporated the demining organization, Humanicemos DH, composed of former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS OF AICMA-OAS IN COLOMBIA:

The AICMA-OAS Program ensures that its actions always consider equal social rights. 

AICMA-OAS staff gender statistics: 

• The two Program unit heads in Colombia are women

• 67% of the women in the Program hold management or supervisory positions.

• 42% of the women in the Program hold operational positions.

• 65% of quality monitors are women.

• 60% of accreditation advisors are women.

• 57% of Component Coordinators are women

• 69% of MRE promoters are women.

Considerations of Race, Ethnicity, and Environmental and Territorial Affect

During 2023, AICMA-OAS continued its internal training to achieve a shared understanding of the differential vision of the context of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples regarding the effects that Anti-Personnel Mines and other Explosive Ordnance have on their communities. This same training has allowed AICMA-OAS staff to focus on issues related to the environmental and territorial impact of mines and other explosive devices in Colombia.

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Objectives

Increase access to cleared lands for safe use by the existing population and the returning displaced population;
Improve the quality of humanitarian demining activities;
Reduce the number of mine accidents in the national territory and achieve total elimination of accidents in priority municipalities;
Improve coordination of national and donor resources consistent with local needs to ensure the community's support for humanitarian demining operations;
Incorporate all newly identified mine survivors into national rehabilitation and reintegration programs.

Activities

Monitoring demining operations executed by all accredited organizations to ensure compliance with Colombian Technical Norms and International Mine Action Standards (IMAS);
Evaluate the demining organizations and their staff as a first step to achieving the accreditation made by the government;
Inspect cleared land to ensure that the cleared areas are safe for delivery to local authorities and can be productively used by the Colombian population.
Raise awareness among the civilian population in the mine-affected areas through its Mine Risk Education and Community Liaison component.
Assist in the physical and psychosocial rehabilitation of mine survivors, as well as in their socioeconomic reintegration.

All activities are based on and implemented in accordance with Colombia's Mine Action Technical Norms and the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

More Results

Results

Five countries were declared by AICMA-OAS as mine-free .

Support the destruction of more than 200,000 mines and Unexploded Ordnance in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Surinam

Support the destruction of one million mines in national stockpiles in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru

Assistance to 2,500 mine survivors in their physical rehabilitation and socioeconomic reintegration.

Promotion of mine risk preventive messages, reaching one million people in 1,500 communities

Beneficiary Countries