ARCHIVED

Handicap International will continue its collaboration with members of INEW, participating in INEW meetings and governance, taking part in coordination of the network activities, providing specific expertise as a field operator on clearance, risk education and victim assistance, and implementing joint activities.

Handicap International will advocate at the national, regional, and international levels on this issue, raising awareness of the harm caused from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and need for a political declaration to prevent such harm and in particular to end the use of explosive weapons with wide area effect in populated areas, through outreach to government representatives, parliamentarians and media. International outreach will take place annually in a variety of forums, in coordination with other INEW members. National outreach will be carried out through the eight national associations of Handicap International in Europe and Northern America, and through its programs present in around 60 countries.

Handicap International will continue to collect data and document the humanitarian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and will publish a range of reports and papers on this theme in the coming years, with a particular focus in 2016 on the situation in Syria, and on the correlation between the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and displacement of populations.

Handicap International will continue to lead a process towards the development of recommendations on victim assistance provision in a future political declaration on that topic, and guidelines on how to implement assistance to victims of explosive weapons. In that process, it will ensure participation of survivors of explosive weapons and other persons impacted by the use of explosive weapons.

Handicap International will continue to respond to the humanitarian needs of communities affected by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, through responding to their basic needs such as food, shelter, child protection, water, sanitation and health, psychological interventions/assistance, education to the risks posed by explosive remnants of war, clearance and victim assistance.

Handicap International will raise awareness towards and educate the wider public on the harm caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by developing public campaigns and media outreach on explosive weapons at the national and international level, with a special focus on its national associations.

Handicap International will support the participation of survivors and other persons impacted by the use of explosive weapons in all events or meetings related to this topic at the national, regional or international level. It will gather testimonies of survivors and other persons impacted in past crises.

Handicap International will document and highlight the harm caused to medical personnel, transports and facilities, and humanitarian relief personnel and assets through policy reports, advocacy calls and recommendations, and in public statements.

Handicap International will increase participation of persons with disabilities in decision making and planning processes of humanitarian programmes, including in relevant assessment and coordination mechanisms.

Handicap International endorses the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and immediately commits towards its implementation.

Handicap International will support the development and implementation of global guidelines on disability inclusion in humanitarian action to be initiated in 2016.  It is ready to take a leading role in the development of such guidelines in some of the following sectors: water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, food, health and protection.

Handicap International will improve the development and tools to continue to ethically collect quantitative and qualitative data on persons with disabilities, disaggregated by age and sex, in the view of increasing comparison and reliability of humanitarian programs.

Handicap International will strengthen the use of and support the development of improved and innovative methods and means of communication to ensure that persons with disabilities are reached during emergencies.

Handicap International will implement the principle of universal design in programming and in post-emergency reconstructions in order to strive to remove physical, communication and attitudinal barriers and discrimination.

Handicap International will reinforce pre-positioning of material, including assistive devices, to timely deploy and make resources available to individuals and their families who are in need of specific assistance during humanitarian emergencies.

Handicap International will expand the implementation of advocacy and awareness raising programmes and trainings to enhance the understanding of the needs of persons with disabilities to all humanitarian actors willing to strengthen their response towards persons with disabilities.

Handicap International will foster partnership with local and national organizations, including organisations representatives of persons with disabilities, in humanitarian emergencies, building their capacities and benefiting from their expertise on inclusion.