Background Information – UNMAS
The United Nations Mine Action
Service (UN...
Background Information – UNMAS
The United Nations Mine Action
Service (UNMAS) is the coordinator for Mine Action within the United Nations
system, located within the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions
(OROLSI) at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). It chairs the
Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action (IACG-MA) and is the lead of the
Global Protection Cluster (GPC) Mine Action Area of Responsibility (MA AoR).
Mine action comprises five areas of work: clearance, risk education, victim
assistance, advocacy and stockpile destruction. The United Nations applies mine
action expertise to an increasingly wide range of explosive hazards, from
unexploded missiles, artillery shells, rockets, grenades and mortars, to unsafe
and unsecured weapons and ammunition, improvised explosive devices and cluster
bombs. UNMAS leads, coordinates and carries out efforts to mitigate these
threats when mandated by the United Nations Security Council or, when requested
by the Secretary-General or an affected country, often in response to a
humanitarian emergency. The Geneva office acts, inter alia, as its humanitarian
hub by maintaining a triangular relationship with New York Headquarters and
operations in the field. Developing partnerships with the humanitarian and
broader Geneva-based community is a priority. The office also deals with
relevant international humanitarian law, and coordinates United Nations
representation through the IACG-MA in different treaty-related meetings, such
as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, the Convention on Cluster Munitions,
and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Background Information – UNMAS Iraq
UNMAS deployed an initial assessment
team to Iraq in March 2015 and has since expanded to offices in both Baghdad
and Erbil and supporting multiple layers of operations.
The UNMAS Iraq programme (“UNMAS
Iraq”) was formally
established in June 2015, at the request of the UN Under-Secretary General for
Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Special Representative of the Secretary
General for Iraq, to lead the UN efforts to mitigate explosive threats in the
country, as well as to support the enhancement of national and regional mine
action capacities.
The presence of explosive hazards
and explosive contamination in areas ‘retaken’ from the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) occupation in Iraq continued to impede security and
stability efforts across Iraq. UNMAS has implemented a comprehensive response
to address the problem of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) in areas newly retaken from ISIL occupation. Iraq is
heavily contaminated with large volumes of recorded and unquantified ERW
through protracted ground fighting and aerial bombing. Recent years have seen
unprecedented accumulations of IEDs placed in urban and rural areas largely by
‘scorched earth’ tactics by ISIL. This is exemplified by the situation in areas
recently retaken from ISIL occupation, and where areas have become
uninhabitable and inaccessible because of such threats. As a result, this poses
such a significant blockage for humanitarian response efforts, with the UN and
national leadership repeatedly referring to a ‘mine action’ as being a high
priority. In most cases, this requirement an absolute necessity before humanitarian
intervention can proceed and improved communications to specific audiences is a
central part of this.
Given the
recent history in Iraq, many politicians and officials are limited on the
requisite experience of strategic communications and public engagement however
their interest in this area is growing quickly as they see the importance of
and benefits of effective messaging across the Government of Iraq (GOI) with
the public. As a result, the existing communications structures are impeded by
several challenges which can lead to multiple messages on humanitarian and
stabilisation issues. In regards to Explosive Threat Mitigation (ETM) comms it
is extremely important to target the right people, using the right platforms
and the right wording at the right time whilst also managing the expectations
of the public, government and donors.