The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Commissioner for Women, Children, Older Persons and Disability Rights Rigbe Gebrehawaria, who is also the Expert Member of the Working Group on the Rights of Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities in Africa took part in Zimbabwe’s National Stakeholder Dialogue on Humanitarian Demining and Mine Victim Assistance, held from February 18-20, 2025, in Harare.
The dialogue was hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe, with technical support from the Implementation Support Unit (ISU) of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. It brought together ministers and other government officials, international experts, civil society organizations (CSOs) and donors to assess progress in mine clearance and long-term victim assistance (VA). The event underscored the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement, legal frameworks and inclusive approaches to addressing the needs of landmine survivors.
The event featured experience-sharing from Uganda, which successfully sustained victim assistance beyond mine clearance completion. Discussions also explored innovative approaches to rehabilitation, assistive technology and psycho-social support, ensuring that landmine survivors receive holistic, rights-based assistance.
Rigbe Gebrehawaria, EHRC’s Commissioner for Women, Children, Older Persons and Disability Rights, delivered key interventions on understanding victim assistance obligations and disability rights and survivor centered data collection. She highlighted Ethiopia’s experience in identifying mine and explosive ordnance survivors and collecting detailed, disaggregated data. She emphasized the critical link between victim assistance and disability rights, underscoring the role of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa (African Disability Protocol) in ensuring survivor inclusion. She also drew attention to Action 32 of the Siem Reap-Angkor Action Plan (SRAAP), which calls for comprehensive data collection on mine and explosive ordnance survivors to inform targeted interventions. She added “Ensuring the rights and inclusion of landmine survivors requires a holistic, rights-based approach that integrates victim assistance into a broader disability and development framework”.
