CIAO DATE: 01/06

Assessing the Compatibility of SALW Awareness and Mine Risk Education

Abstract

The following key observations may be considered as an ‘executive summary’ of the report. The MRE message is comparatively simple when compared to the SALW message. Even in countries that have not signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, it is possible to say that all remaining minefields and all items of unexploded ordnance can be considered a hazard, and that anyone finding any mines or UXO should report them. The SALW issue is more complex, as SALW Awareness messages struggle with the problem that not all weapons are illegal and weapon ownership is - in general - not stigmatised. SALW Awareness projects must therefore struggle with the emphasis they place on either (a) attempting to stigmatise gun ownership with the long term aim of reducing the number of weapons in circulation or (b) concentrating on achieving the comparatively short term aim of preventing accidental injuries resulting from poor gun storage and handling. This problem of ‘selection and maintenance of the aim’ does not occur in MRE.

SEESAC personnel recognise that there is a potential for mixed messages in countries that have both MRE and SALW Awareness programmes. It is recommended that work is undertaken to de-conflict this potential. However, it is impossible to say to what extent this mixed message poses a problem without further survey of the target communities. Under such circumstances, the understandable organisational divisions between mine action and SALW programmes in organisations such as UNDP may be counter-productive, and thoughts should be given to ensuring that programs do not conflict with each other (or allow issues to fall between the gaps).

However although SALW Awareness faces these two significant issues as set out above, it may also be worth observing that the SALW literature is very advanced for a comparatively new sector, and the amount of scientific research presented at all levels - especially in the field of behaviour change communication as it relates to the SALW Awareness issue - is very high. MRE literature struggled with many years to escape an excessively technical paradigm that concentrated on listing and describing endless variations of types and mechanical features of mines. The scientific rigour implied in the literature encourages the belief that the two key problems described above can be addressed and conquered by the SALW community. The full text of the treaty can be found at http://www.icbl.org/treaty/text/english.

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