Thailand hosted the Bangkok Symposium on Enhancing Cooperation and Assistance: Building Synergy towards Effective Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention Implementation on 23 – 25 June 2013. Over a hundred participants representing 48 countries and 18 organizations gathered in Bangkok for the three-day symposium to strengthen international cooperation and assistance. The symposium provided an opportunity for panelists from mine-affected and donor countries as well as experts from international and non-governmental organizations to share experience and explore various possibilities for building synergy across different forums that can lead to more effective implementation of the Convention.

His Royal Highness Prince Mired Raad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan, Special Envoy of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, delivered a keynote address on “The Role of National Ownership in Facilitating Cooperation and Assistance”. Senator Monthian Buntan of Thailand, a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, led a panel discussion on the Incheon Strategy and its relationship to the implementation of the Convention.  

Related activities included a field trip to the Sirindhorn National Medical Rehabilitation Center and the Thai Wheel Factory operated by the Thais with Disability Foundation, where participants obtained a comprehensive picture of the support Thailand provides to persons with disabilities, including victims of landmines. 

The Bangkok Symposium was hosted by the Royal Thai Government as Co-Chair of the Standing Committee on Resources, Cooperation and Assistance of the Mine Ban Convention, with support from the Australian Government and the Convention’s Implementation Support Unit.

Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia to sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Mine Ban Convention) on 3 December 1997. It has played an active role as a state party to the Convention and host to the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Convention (5MSP) in 2003, as well as serving as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance, and currently the Standing Committee on Resources, Cooperation and Assistance.