The UEFA EURO 2008™ ‘Score for the Red Cross’ campaign raised half a million euros which will be used to help mine victims in Afghanistan rebuild their lives.

Luanda/Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is handing over its physical rehabilitation programme for landmine victims in Angola to the Ministry of Health after nearly 30 years of ICRC support for three centres, in Luanda, Huambo and Kuito.

To enable victims of anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance to benefit from a faster and more efficient service, the ICRC is working with various local organizations specializing in the manufacture of artificial limbs and orthotic devices and in rehabilitative treatment.

On the tenth anniversary of the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel mines celebrated on 3 December 2007, the ICRC calls on all remaining states to accede to the Treaty. This report shows victims from Iraq and Chechnya as well as clearance work in South Lebanon.

Geneva (ICRC) – Much progress has been made in the past decade towards eradicating anti-personnel mines worldwide, but the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) views the 10th anniversary of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-personnel Mines (Ottawa Convention), on 3 December, as a time when States should pause to reflect on the major challenges that remain.

Geneva/Nyon (ICRC) – The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has chosen the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the official charity partner for the EURO 2008™ football championship to be held in Austria and Switzerland

Brussels (ICRC) – The use of weapons such as cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines, and their regulation under international humanitarian law (IHL), will be the focus of this year's Bruges Colloquium in Belgium.

Geneva (ICRC) – The Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society is today opening safe-play areas for children in two villages in the Gazakh district, along Azerbaijan's western border with Armenia.

The first ever ICRC mine action rapid response exercise was organised in Sweden 7-13 June.

Kuwait City (ICRC) – A two-day regional seminar bringing together governments of the six member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to discuss the humanitarian consequences of anti-personnel landmines and other explosive remnants of war, opened today in Kuwait City.

The Lebanese Red Cross, in partnership with the Norwegian Red Cross, is holding a meeting in Tyre from 1 to 3 February to discuss global humanitarian concerns related to the use of cluster munitions.

The ICRC, in close cooperation with the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) and the Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines (AzCBL), held a workshop for local journalists to raise awareness about the important role of the media in reducing the problems caused by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Geneva (ICRC) – The annual meeting of the 151 States party to the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines opened today in Geneva, nine years to the day after governments agreed to comprehensively ban these inhumane and indiscriminate weapons.

Geneva/Colombo (ICRC) – The number of civilian casualties caused by explosive devices in northern and eastern Sri Lanka has sharply increased in recent weeks.

In February 2006, the ICRC’s regional delegation for Southern Africa completed a mine risk education course for Angolan refugees in the Republic of Namibia.

Geneva/Zagreb (ICRC) - The annual meeting of the 147 States party to the Convention on the prohibition of anti-personnel mines opened today in Zagreb, Croatia with a call from the vice-president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for governments to devote more effort and resources to clearing mined areas and ensuring mine victims have access to the lifelong assistance they need.

Today the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan will open newly constructed safe play areas for children from Evoglu and Garadaghly villages near Agdam.

"Always stay on the road, don't take shortcuts, keep off the verges and avoid holes in asphalt!" This was the stark advice given to 30 bus drivers during a recent mine-risk education session organized by the ICRC in a room at one of Kabul's bus stations.

Last week the ICRC and Azerbaijan's National Agency for Mine Action held a four-day workshop near Baku to raise awareness of the risk posed by mines. The event was part of an ICRC project to create safe play areas in villages near former conflict zones in Azerbaijan.

A war-surgery seminar held by the ICRC from 5 to 7 April was attended by 14 surgeons and other doctors and clinical and orthopaedic personnel from government, missionary and military hospitals in the Gulu, Pader and Kitgum districts of northern Uganda.

More than 30 teams from all over Russia competed in the annual Presidential Football Cup for the Disabled in Moscow last week. Laman az from Grozny played in the tournament for the first time, with support from the ICRC.

The Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World concluded today with a renewed commitment by the 144 States that have banned anti-personnel mines to persevere in their efforts to eradicate this insidious weapon.

Seven years after the Convention banning anti-personnel mines was adopted, the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World (29 November - 3 December) will bring together leaders of the 143 States party to the Convention to assess progress towards ending the suffering these abhorrent weapons cause.

The first of a planned six safe-play areas to be built in Chechnya with the support of the ICRC opened today in the Staropromislovski district of Grozny.

Eight young limb-fitting specialists from Grozny will today receive the diploma that marks the end of their two-year course at the Prosthetic/Orthotic Centre in the Black Sea town of Sochi. "I am proud of my choice", says Ruslan, who works at the Grozny Prosthetic Workshop.

The ICRC's mine-action team in Kabul has produced a new safety leaflet intended mainly for Afghans returning to the country from Iran and Pakistan.

The ICRC was awarded the Brian Blatchford Prize at the 11th World Congress of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO), held in Hong Kong from 1 to 6 August.

A few weeks ago, 12-year-old Taha and nine-year-old Alida were tending cattle in the family fields adjacent to the village of Kunar, in northern Pakistan near the “line of control” between Pakistan-controlled and Indian-controlled Kashmir.

More than 40 Red Cross and Red Crescent representatives from the most mine-affected countries of the world met in Sweden last week to pool their experience and intensify efforts to reduce casualties and suffering caused by mines and explosive remnants of war.

Geneva (ICRC) – Courage and determination are the themes for the Cairo stage of the Olympic torch run on 11 June. An Afghan mine victim will be carrying the Olympic torch on its long journey to Athens. Najmuddin will be running on behalf of many thousands of mine victims in dozens of countries around the world who have overcome terrible injury to rebuild their lives.

Budapest (ICRC) – Today, 340 anti-personnel mines were blown up when Antanas Valionis, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs, pushed a button at a mine-destruction ceremony held at Pabradë military range in Lithuania.

As the former High Representative of the international community for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch is a very well-known personality in the country. In early May he visited Sarajevo, where the International Campaign to Ban Landmines was holding its annual global meeting of anti-personnel landmine experts.

"My brother and I went from Gudermes to the Vedensky region to find out what had happened to our house. We took the short cut to the village that we had used before. My brother saw an object on the ground and picked it up. It exploded. He died and I lost my hand and eyesight. I underwent several operations in Moscow but could not get my eyesight back".

On 9 March the ICRC and the Jordan National Red Crescent Society launched a programme to raise awareness of the danger of mines and unexploded ordnance at a ceremony that included a speech by the National Society’s secretary-general, Fahed El-Ejjeh, and was followed by a three-day workshop.

The East Africa Landmines Workshop, organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Governments of Kenya and Canada, has just ended in Nairobi with an urgent call for renewed commitment to implementing the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines.

The University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, the largest medical facility in Zambia, has a fully operational limb-fitting centre that the ICRC has been supporting since 1997, providing it with material and helping it to build up its capacity.

Geneva (ICRC) – Exactly five years have passed since the global ban on anti-personnel mines took effect and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) welcomes the remarkable progress achieved in this period. So far 141 States have joined the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines and all the others have made political commitments to the eventual total elimination of anti-personnel mines.

The fear of no longer being able to provide for their families haunts the many people who have been injured by mines or unexploded ordnance in Chechnya.

Geneva (ICRC) – Since its inception, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has done its utmost to alleviate the plight of conflict victims, particularly disabled civilians and military personnel. On the approach of International Day for the Disabled, the ICRC remains as committed as ever to pursuing this vital work.

Two Myanmar trainees qualified as orthopaedic technologists at the Cambodian School of Prosthetics & Orthotics in Phnom Penh last week. One trainee works for the Ministry of Health, the other for the Defence Medical Services.

A second campaign on the dangers of anti-personnel landmines, organized by the Peruvian Mine Action Centre (CONTRAMINAS) with the support of the ICRC and the Organization of American States (OAS), came to an end this week in the department of Junín (central Sierra), Peru.