Background – UNMAS
The United Nations Mine Action
Service (UNMAS) was established in 1997, by the General Assembly, and as per
the UN Policy on Mine Action and Effective Coordination (A/53/496, 1998) is the
established coordinator of mine action within the United Nations system. UNMAS
supports the UN's vision of "a world free of the threat of landmines and
unexploded ordnance, where individuals and communities live in a safe
environment conducive to development, and where mine survivors are fully
integrated into their societies."
UNMAS is a unit within the Office of
Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) within the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). When instructed by the Security Council or
called upon by Member States, UNMAS deploys under humanitarian, peace and
security mandates. UNMAS main headquarters is in the UN Secretariat, New York
with a sub-office in Geneva. UNMAS provides direct support and assistance in
the areas of Explosive Hazard (EH) mitigation to 18
countries/territories/missions, has a standby rapid response capacity and
global technical advisors in the field of Improvised Explosive Devices and
(IED) Weapons and Ammunition Management (WAM).
Background Information – UNMAS Iraq
The presence of explosive hazards and
explosive contamination in areas ‘retaken’ from the Da’esh occupation in Iraq
continues to impede security and stability efforts. Retaken areas such as
Fallujah, Ramadi, and Mosul are heavily contaminated with large volumes of
explosive hazards through protracted ground fighting and aerial bombing. As a
result, the contamination poses a significant blockage for humanitarian
response efforts, and in most cases, a mine action response is required before
humanitarian interventions can proceed.
The UNMAS Iraq programme (“UNMAS
Iraq”) was formally established in June
2015 and has since expanded to offices in both Baghdad and Erbil and supports
multiple layers of operations. The MA AOR / MA Sub-Cluster was activated in
2016 and at the same time, the post of MA Sub-Cluster Coordinator was
established. 12 months later, the post
has evolved and UNMAS now seeks to increase its focus on capacity enhancement
of local mine action authorities, and as such, develop the role of MA
Sub-Cluster Coordinator to support this evolution.
In Iraq, the Iraq Directorate of Mine
Action (DMA) under the Ministry of Environment and Health is responsible for
all traditional MA activities. The DMA more recently has become involved in the
humanitarian response in retaken areas and coordinating with the increasing
number of Mine Action NGOs. DMA oversees Regional Mine Action Centres (RMACs)
in four locations.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
(KRI), the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA), under the Regional Government
Prime Minister’s Office, is responsible for all traditional MA activities in
both the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the so-called ‘grey areas’ under an
agreement with DMA. The IKMAA maintain its HQ in Erbil with sub offices in
Dohuk and Sulimaniyah.
The Joint Coordination and Monitoring
Center (JCMC) of the Federal Government of Iraq (Gol) and the Joint Crisis
Centre (JCC) of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also have a role in
humanitarian response. Their mandates relate to coordination of responses to
humanitarian crisis, either man-made or natural.
Given the security-related nature of
explosive hazard management and coordination in Iraq, coordination mechanisms
exist on a multitude of levels, and frequently involve the Ministry of Interior
and Ministry of Defense in addition to the Government bodies outlined above.
Technical Working Groups and coordination meetings are attended by the
Government, the donor community, commercial organisations, the Global Coalition
and NATO. Through these coordination mechanisms, military and civilian entities
involved in response to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other explosive
hazards have the opportunity to deconflict initiatives and enhance
harmonization of activities.
In Iraq, humanitarian organisations -
both UN and non-UN have functioned under the cluster approach since the Level 3
(L3) emergency was declared in 2014. The cluster approach ensures clear
leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to
humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labour among
organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the
different sectors of the response. It aims to make the international
humanitarian community better organised and more accountable and professional,
so that it can be a better partner for the affected people, host governments,
local authorities, local civil society and resourcing partners. The steady roll
out of the Cluster mechanism was done to specifically address the needs of
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) resulting from escalating armed violence in
Anbar Province between December 2013 to early 2014 and later expanded in 2015
to cover all IDPs in Iraq regardless of their place of origin and place of
displacement and encompass the scope of humanitarian efforts across Iraq for
the benefit of all those affected by the humanitarian crisis, including host
communities, IDPs, refugees and other vulnerable groups.