Summary action points based on findings

• More progress needs to be made to improve the quality and sustainability of services for survivors and other persons with disabilities, including by upgrading community-based rehabilitation (CBR) centers.
• The national casualty database should be regularly updated as planned and shared with appropriate actors and government authorities so that the data is used to improve victim assistance coordination and access to services for survivors and other persons with disabilities.
• Discrimination based on the category of disability persisted and needs to be addressed, as certain categories of civilians with disabilities were not receiving adequate assistance on an equal basis with others.

Victim assistance commitments

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is responsible for significant numbers of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. BiH has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol V, and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

BiH ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 12 March 2010.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

Details and trends

In 2014, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Center (BHMAC) reported 16 mine/ERW casualties (six people killed and 10 injured), including one deminer killed and another injured in one demining accident. At least one casualty was a child.[1] The 2014 casualty total represented an increase compared to 2013 when BHMAC reported 13 mine/ERW casualties in BiH.[2]

For the period 1992–2014, BHMAC recorded a total of 8,350 mine/ERW casualties: details were available for 8,335 casualties, 1,839 killed, 6,049injured, and 447 unknown. From 1997 to the end of 2014, BHMAC recorded 116 casualties among humanitarian deminers.[3]

Cluster munition casualties

No new or previous cluster munition casualties were reported in 2014. BiH reported having identified 230 cluster munition casualties according to preliminary data to 2013, out of which 44 civilians were killed and 181 were injured; while one deminer was killed and four were injured. The data is not disaggregated by age or sex.[4] At least 86 casualties during cluster munitions strikes were identified in BiH in 1995.[5]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 6,049 mine/ERW survivors in BiH.

Victim assistance since 1999[6]

From 1999–2004, most victim assistance targeting mine/ERW survivors was provided by international NGOs without adequate coordination, often resulting in unsystematic service provision. Until 2003, no overall coordination mechanism existed. As post-conflict funding for NGO efforts began to wane after 2004, so did international support for victim assistance. In 2009, a centralized database on survivors was developed from data provided by national and international NGOs, but the final database was found to be incomplete and inconsistent.

Medical assistance has been adequate since 2004, despite an overall dependence on international aid as a result of the conflict. Improvements have mainly been made in emergency response services, again due to international donor contributions. During the period, the quality of physical rehabilitation services remained variable, but overall satisfactory, despite incomplete rehabilitation teams, a lack of personnel trained to international standards, and a complex bureaucracy.

Government capacity to finance rehabilitation services has improved since 1999. State-run social centers and a network of CBR centers in 64 municipalities that have been created since 1998, provided psychosocial support as well as physical rehabilitation. These continued to endure a lack of capacity and community awareness. NGOs also provided this type of support.

Persistent gaps in economic reintegration remained during the entire period, partly due to high unemployment in general, with unemployment of persons with disabilities at around 85%. Almost all of the economic reintegration activities were carried out by NGOs. However, the two entity governments—the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska—introduced specific funds for persons with disabilities in 2007 and in 2011. Disability legislation existed but was not sufficiently enforced. Services for disabled military persons and pensioners were better than those for civilians.

Victim assistance under the Vientiane Action Plan 2011–2015

Services provided by NGOs decreased from 2009 through the end of 2013, mainly linked with the ongoing decline in international funding.

In 2014, catastrophic flooding affected a significant number of landmine survivors (about half of all known survivors according to early reports) and their families, some of whom lost their homes and other resources. The flooding disrupted victim assistance and other mine action activities, including emergency marking in many of the flooded areas. There was no specific assistance to mine/ERW survivors or other persons with disabilities during the response as the help provided to the affected population was not selective. In media statements, BHMAC urged special attention to the needs of mine/ERW survivors.[7]

In 2014, smaller national projects were being implemented[8]

Assessing victim assistance needs

The national database maintained by BHMAC includes results of a survivor needs assessment compiled in 2009. Data was available for use by victim assistance service providers upon request. However, data lacked detailed information and was not usable for planning or analysis.[9]

BHAMC reported the casualty database was regularly updated with information on registered mine/ERW incidents and clearance accidents, and assistance projects.[10]

Victim assistance coordination[11]

BiH reported that until the process of reforming an independent government body appropriate for all action encompassed by assistance for cluster munition victims is completed, BHMAC will be the body temporarily documenting information about the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[12] However, BHMAC is not authorized to monitor government activities in regard to the implementation of relevant legislation.[13]

Previous coordination through the Landmine Victim Assistance (LMVA) Working Group, hosted by BHMAC until 2014, primarily had consisted of information sharing by victim assistance actors. The main tasks of the LMVA Working Group (which held three coordination meetings in 2013) were to promote the needs of survivors and the coordination, monitoring, and approval of the implementation of those victim assistance projects that received international donor funding. The group was also involved in the approval of statements for international meetings.[14]

As of 2015, the problem of BiH defining a body responsible for coordination of victim assistance issues had persisted for over a decade. In 2005, the Demining Commission drafted new law to update the management structure and allocation of responsibilities with UNDP support. BHMAC reported that it had no legal responsibility to undertake survivor assistance coordination under the 2002 demining law, although it was planned to change this in the revised legislation. In mid-2007 the law was again under revision to include all mine action pillars.[15] BHMAC had already, however, been coordinating survivor assistance through the LMVA coordination group, which was composed of government departments and agencies as well as the ICRC/Red Cross societies, UNICEF, and NGOs.[16] By 2008, some 10 organizations and ministries signed agreements recognizing BHMAC as the coordinating body for victim assistance.[17] BHMAC retained responsibility for coordination in 2009.[18] Coordination through the LMVA Working Group primarily consisted of briefings by victim assistance actors and information sharing. Most key actors in victim assistance were involved.[19]

In 2010 and 2011, the government focal point for victim assistance under the Convention on Cluster Munitions in BiH was reportedly designated within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[20] In 2012 through 2014, no victim assistance focal point within the government was reported.[21]

BiH also reported that in 2014 there were “continuous coordinating activities” between BHMAC and organizations working on victim assistance in BiH for the preparation of reporting about progress for the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference in Maputo.[22]

In 2012, as recommended by external actors, the Victim Assistance Sub-Strategy 2009–2019 was revised as the Victim Assistance Sub-Strategy 2014–2019, in consultation with survivors’ representative organizations.[23] There is no body with a mandate to monitor the implementation of the sub-strategy, and NGOs were not actively monitoring it. BHMAC itself does not have a monitoring mechanism to follow the implementation of the sub-strategy and all information related to implementation of the sub-strategy was obtained from voluntary reporting of NGO activities.[24]

BiH made a detailed statement on victim assistance at the Third Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in June 2014. BiH provided information on victim assistance in its Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 reporting for calendar year 2014.[25]

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

Mine/ERW survivors and their representative organizations were included in the LMVA Working Group and survivors were included in the implementation of services through NGOs.[26]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[27]

Medical care and rehabilitation

BiH has 63 community centers for mental and physical rehabilitation. The centers continued to provide services to mine/ERW survivors but required renovation, upgrades, and an expansion of the services offered.[28] Health insurance covers the costs of basic prosthetic devices, but more needed to be done to address persisting differences in coverage of other rehabilitative costs, based on the origins and category of disability.[29]

While provision of orthopedic and other devices and assistive technology is mandated by law, the extent to which these entitlements can be accessed was severely limited, because the associated regulations had not been adopted, were excessively restrictive, or were not enforced. Similarly, there were no systematic provisions for training independent mobility for persons with disabilities, which has had a particularly negative impact on persons with more severe impairment.[30]

Economic and social inclusion

Despite an overall decrease in the availability of economic inclusion activities, a number of smaller local projects were implemented in 2014.

Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland (ASB) provided livestock for mine/ERW survivors through a €1 million project on the socioeconomic empowerment of survivors funded through the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA).[31]

LSI carried out a project on best practice models for the employment of persons with disabilities and Stop Mines implemented a program of sustainable professional rehabilitation of for survivors in Republika Srpska.[32]

Emergency response

In 2014, Stop Mines completed a project providing social and legal aid for people affected by floods in Doboj, including mine/ERW survivors.[33] Food packages and similar basic items were delivered in about 100 packages for mine/ERW survivors.[34]

Laws and policies

BiH ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2010, but has made little progress in implementing it.[35] NGOs also reported that in the period since BiH ratified the CRPD in 2010, “the state has yet to make concrete steps towards eliminating the discrimination against persons with disabilities.” Such discrimination still exists in both entities of the country, the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska. Laws concerning the rights of persons with disabilities, including legislation regulating rights to healthcare and rehabilitation, labor and employment, social protection, and education, lack legal the mechanisms necessary for their implementation, which impeded there execution.[36] With regard to victim assistance, BiH reported that disability-rights was relatively well regulated by legislation but was not actually implemented in practice. [37] From 2014 into 2015, UDAS was carrying out a project on the legal implementation of the CRPD in BiH.[38]

The National Council for Persons with Disabilities includes 10 representatives of state and entity ministries and 10 representatives of persons with disabilities. No representative organizations of mine/ERW survivors were on the council, though there were representatives of disabled veterans organizations and civilian war victims’ organizations.[39] NGOs, including one representing mine/ERW survivors, reported the National Council for Persons with Disabilities “does not constitute an independent mechanism” to include persons with disabilities in the promotion, protection, and monitoring of the implementation of the CRPD in accordance with Article 33 of the convention.[40]

According to joint reporting by the Light for the World and MyRight project, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities had challenges regarding its independence, and effectiveness and funding (due to an ad hoc budget). DPOs did not consider the council inclusive or representative. Appointments to the council were not made in a consultative manner but chosen by decision of the BiH Council of Ministers. As of 2014, the council’s activities were yet to show results for persons with disabilities.[41]

The position of women, including women with disabilities, who are subject to multiple discriminations, is “worrisome.” There was a need to raise awareness about the discrimination against women with disabilities in all areas of healthcare, particularly gynecological care.[42]

BiH’s initial report on the rights of persons with disabilities under the CRPD in 2012, noted that “the area of social welfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not resolved well, it does not even provide minimum security to citizens and does not define a social minimum for persons with disability either.”[43]

BiH reported that in 2014 there were improvements in regulations on pension and disability insurance, on social protection, as well as regulations on professional rehabilitation, enabling, and employment of disabled persons and on health protection, with relevance to survivors.[44] However, entitlement to rights and benefits for persons with disabilities is still based on status, not on needs. There remained clear discrimination between different categories of persons with disabilities. The European Commission (EC) reported that as a result, persons with some categories of disabilities did not receive adequate benefits.[45] In particular, persons with disabilities resulting from military service during the 1992–1995 conflict were given a privileged status above civilian war victims and persons who were born with disabilities or acquired impairments by other means.[46] The distinction between war veterans with disabilities, civil victims of the war, and between those groups and other persons with disabilities was made at all levels and in all areas of BiH social protection structures. As a result of these distinctions on the basis of the role of the individual and cause of impairment qualified for very different benefits and entitlements.[47]

BiH has reported that “Bosnia and Herzegovina with its entities implements standard procedures related to care on persons with disabilities. In these government programs, cluster munitions victims are equal with other disabled people and they receive help that is regulated by legal acts of governmental institutions for this field. Discrimination in this matter does not exist.”[48]

The United States (US) Department of State reported that although legislation at all levels prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, in practice there was discrimination against persons with disabilities in all the areas of employment, education, access to healthcare, transportation, and the provision of other state services.[49]

In its initial reporting to the CRPD, BiH reported that “The most important mechanism in protection from discrimination is the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination.”[50] However, the EC reported that the anti-discrimination law is in place but does not include disability as a category for discrimination. It further stated that persons with disabilities “are not adequately protected,” by anti-discrimination regulations at state, entity, or cantonal levels, or in the Brčko District. An anti-discrimination strategy at the state level was yet to be adopted and overall there was no comprehensive collection of data on discrimination.[51] The anti-discrimination law allows for a broad range of exceptions and only limited steps were taken to ensure its implementation.[52]

Persons with disabilities faced poor recognition of their rights and needs for accessibility. Physical accessibility is still a major problem in BiH and is not included in the priorities for addressing the challenges faced by persons with disabilities. There are no action plans to address the removal of physical barriers.[53] There is generally poor awareness of the necessity of applying accessibility standards throughout the whole system of designing, building, and supervising construction resulting in inaccessible buildings with only partial access to some of the facilities. There were physical obstacles to access to most institutions of primary healthcare in both urban and rural environments.[54] Architectural barriers remain a major problem in exercising any rights of persons with disabilities.[55]

BiH has legislation to ensure physical access to persons with disabilities. In the Federation of BiH, the law mandated that all public buildings must be retrofitted to provide access and new buildings must also be accessible. In practice, however, buildings were rarely accessible to persons with disabilities, including several government buildings. Republika Srpska had comparable laws for public accessibility, but few older public buildings were accessible. Human rights NGOs reported that many new public buildings continued to be built without access for persons with disabilities.[56]

The Federation of BiH had a strategy for persons with disabilities for the period 2010–2014 and Republika Srpska has a strategy for persons with disabilities for 2010–2015.[57] The implementation of the social protection legislative framework remains weak in both the Federation and Republika Srpska.[58]

Persons with disabilities did not have their rights guaranteed by constitutional protection throughout BiH. Light for the World and MyRight project highlighted the issue that only one constitution—that of Republika Srpska[59]—of a total of 13 constitutions in the country includes a specific requirement for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities to exercise their human rights and freedoms.[60]