Summary points based on 2014 findings

• Create a sustainable funding strategy for the physical rehabilitation sector, which relies on international funding and national donations.
• Ensure that all survivors in the Lebanon Mine Action Center (LMAC) database have received a healthcare card to facilitate their access to care.
• Introduce standards for prosthetic devices.

Victim assistance commitments

The Lebanese Republic is responsible for significant numbers of cluster munition victims and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW), as well as landmine survivors, who are in need. Lebanon has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Lebanon signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 14 June 2007.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2014, LMAC identified 16 mine/ERW casualties. Four of the casualties were boys while twelve were adult men, including five deminers and six civilians. One deminer was killed and two injured by cluster munitions, and two were injured by antipersonnel landmines. No female casualties were recorded in 2014.[1]

The 16 casualties identified in 2014 represent a 30% decrease from the 24 casualties identified in 2013. However, the annual total remained higher than in 2012 (nine casualties)[2] and 2011 (six casualties), while 24 casualties were reported by LMAC in 2010.[3] Annual mine/ERW casualty rates had been declining significantly from the 98 casualties in the year 2000, except for a spike in casualties between August and December 2006 immediately following the July 2006 bombing of southern Lebanon.[4]

The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Lebanon recorded from 1975 to December 2014 was 3,723 mine/ERW casualties (905 killed; 2,818 injured). Of these casualties, over 80% were male and less than 20% were female; 27% were children. Of the casualties, 87% are survivors and 13% were killed by cluster munitions (see section on cluster munition casualties).[5]

The total number of recorded mine/ERW casualties was reduced following a database review, which removed duplicate entries of survivors.[6]

Cluster munition casualties

The Monitor has identified 720 cluster munition casualties for the same time period, including those recorded by LMAC. Little data is available on casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes; only 16 (three people killed; 13 injured) were identified.[7] LMAC data to December 2014 indicated 672 casualties (156 killed; 516 injured) from unexploded submunitions, of which 18% (120) were children at the time of the incident.[8]

Cluster munition casualties continued in 2015. On 27 March 2015, eight children were injured in an incident with an unexploded submunition from the 2006 conflict.[9]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 2,818 mine/ERW survivors in Lebanon as of December 2014.[10]

Victim assistance since 1999

Since Monitor reporting began in 1999, the number of national and international actors involved in providing a range of victim assistance services to mine/ERW survivors throughout the country has grown, most especially following the bombing in 2006.

Following Israel’s large-scale use of cluster munitions in Lebanon during 2006, various government agencies and NGOs collected data on the needs of mine/ERW survivors and cluster munition victims.

Medical care was provided through public health facilities with other victim assistance services made available through national and international organizations dependent on international funding sources. NGO members of the National Victim Assistance Steering Committee (approximately 12, hereafter “Steering Committee”) implemented programs for physical rehabilitation and for economic and socialinclusion, including sports programs and some peer support. Almost no psychological support was available to survivors during this period.

Barriers to accessing victim assistance services, particularly for those living in southern Lebanon, included the cost of services, the lack of affordable transportation, and/or a lack of awareness of availability. A decline in funding, which reportedly began in 2008, forced some service providers to reduce their numbers of beneficiaries; however, most reported continuing activities at similar levels despite declining funding.

Since 2001, victim assistance was coordinated through regular meetings of the Steering Committee hosted by the national mine action center. Throughout most of the period, Lebanon lacked a comprehensivevictim assistance plan; coordination mainly consisted of information sharing among service providers. While LMAC was mostly seen to be effective in coordinating victim assistance activities, NGO service providers found that reduced funding affected the quality of coordination and fewer coordination meetings were held.

Due to the crisis in Syria, diversion of healthcare resources and other services to assist incoming refugees from that country increased.

Victim assistance under the Vientiane Action Plan 2011–2015

Lebanon began to develop a national victim assistance strategy for the first time in 2011. In 2012, a detailed victim assistance needs assessment was conducted by a Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) consultant to enable a longer-term victim assistance strategy to be developed.[11] NPA and LMAC jointly initiated assessment was carried out in line with the Lebanon National Strategy 2011–2020 that requires a regular needs assessment of the situation of, and services available to, cluster munitions victims.[12] The victim assistance strategy established targets for comprehensive victim assistance by 2020.

There was a major decrease in funds for victim assistance activities in 2012, and as a result of few activities being implemented, the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance met infrequently in that year. In 2013, the committee was beginning to return to previous levels of activity.[13]

In 2013, further steps were taken to establish coordination between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Steering Committee to ensure that all eligible survivors will be granted a disability card by 2016.[14] Lebanon was in the process of reviewing the eligibility requirements for persons with disabilities, including survivors, to receive disability cards to entitle them to some free health services.[15]

Victim assistance in 2014

The funding situation had improved since 2013, however, the current level of support is still insufficient to serve the victims.[16] The recent influx of large numbers of refugees from Syria continued to exacerbate the situation. In particular, Lebanon noted that resources remained scarce while international assistance to Lebanon remained “relatively insignificant compared to the size of the crisis.”[17]

Assessing victim assistance needs

The victim assistance survey, launched in 2013 by LMAC, was finalized in 2014.[18] LMAC conducted a national needs assessment survey that reached out to a randomly selected sample of 690 victims (survivors and deceased) and their families. It assessed medical, economic, social, psychological, and educational/training needs, as well as opportunities and challenges.[19] Survey data provided the Steering Committee with information, focusing mostly on medical and rehabilitation needs.[20]

In response to the influx of Syrian refugees, the ICRC conducted a physical rehabilitation needs assessment mission in 2014. After the assessment, the ICRC Physical Rehabilitation Project Manager began working to further assess the situation and build relationships with physical rehabilitation services in Lebanon.[21]

Victim assistance coordination[22]

LMAC manages and coordinates the implementation of victim assistance in Lebanon through the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance. The committee includes representatives of the following organizations:

• The Injured and Victims of War Association
• The Islamic Al Rissala Scouts Association
• The Islamic Health Council
• The Landmines Resource Center
• The Lebanese Association for Health and Social Care
• The Lebanese Welfare Association for the Handicapped
• The Ministry of Social Affairs
• The National Rehabilitation and Development Center
• NPA
• The Philanthropic Association for the Handicapped in Nabatiyeh
• The Vision Association for Development, Rehabilitation and Care
• The World Rehabilitation Fund

The committee is responsible for implementing the victim assistance strategy in addition to ensuring coordination between the different stakeholders. In 2014, the committee held quarterly meetings to discuss on-going and future projects as well as updates on the national situation.[23] A joint planning meeting and workshop on mine risk education/mine victim assistance) to discuss mine risk education and victim assistance activities was held in in 2014. The workshop was attended by members of both steering committees, the LMAC, UNDP officers, the Balamand University Director, and a representative of the European Union delegation to Lebanon.[24]

The Lebanon Mine Action Strategy 2011–2020includes a commitment to the “full realisation of the rights of mine victims guaranteed,” where “all victims are provided with medical, social, psychological, and economic support as part of the fulfillment of their full legal rights as stated in the law 220/2000.” The strategy has a specific reference to victim assistance in the context of the Article 5 obligation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the "spirit of compliance" with the Mine Ban Treaty, and implementation of the CRPD.[25]

The midterm review of the Lebanon Mine Action Strategy 2011–2020 was completed in 2014. Based on the review, new next “milestones” were amended to include:

• All eligible victims have been issued disability cards through a coordination mechanism set between Ministry of Social Affairs and the Steering Committee headed by LMAC.
• The implementation of Law 220/2000 has been advocated for through meetings organized with the relevant ministries and with the private sector.
• 4,200 copies of the booklet designed to increase victims’ awareness towards their rights has been distributed to victims and the private sector.
• An advocacy campaign has been organized by survivors to advocate their rights.
• National standards for prosthetic devices have been set.
• 90 victims have been provided with prosthetic devices, 54 with prosthetics repair services, and 15 with assistive devices.
• A survivor satisfaction survey has been implemented for 100 victims and 100 family members.
• 280 survivors have been trained to enhance their income-generation skills.
• 60 survivors have been trained in advocacy.
• 20 survivors have been provided with funds to implement their income-generating projects.
• Memorandums of understanding (MoUs) have been drafted with at least two entities from the private sector to provide services to victims.

Lebanon provided an update on its progress and challenges in implementing victim assistance at the Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose in September 2014. As of 1 July 2015, Lebanon had not yet submitted its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report for calendar year 2014.[26]

Local and international humanitarian agencies helping persons with disabilities among refugees from Syria and Lebanese host communities are coordinating their efforts through the Disability and Older Age Working Group, formed in June 2013. The Working Group held 18 meetings in 2014.[27]

Survivor inclusion and participation

Survivors were reported to have been included in the Steering Committee as representatives of NGO service providers.[28] In September 2014, a survivor provided an intervention as a representative of survivors at a meeting of the Steering Committee.[29]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[30]

Lebanese healthcare services and facilities were placed under additional pressure in 2014 as a result of internal violence and the arrival of hundreds of war-wounded Syrians seeking medical assistance. In response to this situation, the ICRC provided medical supplies and medicines for hospitals and dispensaries (in north Lebanon and the Bekaa) and covered the cost of treatment for 350 critically wounded Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian patients in Lebanese hospitals.[31] The ICRC maintained its support for its main operational partner, the Lebanese Red Cross, to carry out medical evacuations of Syrian war casualties crossing into Lebanon in 2014.

In response to the strain on the Lebanese medical system, the ICRC established weapon traumatology centers in two Tripoli hospitals for all patients, as well as holding seminars on weapon-wound surgery and emergency room trauma care. (For further information on ICRC services to Syrians in Lebanon, please see the Syria country profile.) It also helped the Lebanese Red Cross blood bank keep pace with increased demand caused by the influx of Syrian war casualties.[32]

Rehabilitation including prosthetics, economic inclusion, and psychosocial assistance

Approximately 100 relatively active but poorly funded private organizations provided most of the assistance received by persons with disabilities.[33] Physical rehabilitation was largely dependent on funding from external donors and national charities.[34]

The World Rehabilitation Fund provided 738 persons with disabilities with 853 rehabilitation devices (including 153 prostheses) in 2014. Of the total number of persons with disabilities included in the seven-month project, the majority (622) were Syrian refugees, 35 were Palestinian refugees from Syria, and 81 from Lebanese host communities.[35]

No changes were identified in the availability of economic inclusion projects or social support, both of which were very limited compared with the level of need.

Psychological support was the least developed area of assistance in Lebanon. In 2015, it was reported that persons with psychosocial impairments had been recently granted the use of disability identification cards.[36]

National laws and policies

Discrimination against persons with disabilities is prohibited by law, but continued to exist. The National Disability Law stipulates a 3% quota to hire persons with disabilities for all employers. However, there was no evidence the law was enforced and there was little to no impact. The law required that buildings be made accessible to persons with disabilities, but the building code still required amendments.[37] The National Council of Persons with Disability has held consultations including persons with disabilities on social protection programs. The Council, however, does not have any executive responsibility despite its responsibility for disability social policy.[38]

In 2015, the Lebanese Coalition of Organizations of Disabled Persons reported that there were no disability pensions (for families or for persons with disabilities) or family support to care for persons with disabilities, nor did persons with disabilities receive mobility grants. There was a large gap between the demand for services for persons with disabilities and the existing services.[39]

The Law on the “Access and Rights of People with Disability” 220/2000 addresses the rights of persons with disabilities to have access to adequate education, rehabilitation services, employment, medical services, sports, and access to public transport and other facilities. However, it also reported that the law had yet to be comprehensively put into practice, due in part to a lack of sufficient resource allocation within the national budget.[40] In 2015, most public facilities, including schools and universities, were not yet accessible for persons with disabilities.[41]

Lebanon reported that it is looking to integrate the implementation of Convention on Cluster Munitions victim assistance provisions into existing coordination mechanisms such as the ones created for the CRPD and the Law 220/2000.[42]

In 2013, terms of reference were prepared for the design of a booklet to raise awareness among survivors on their rights under Law 220/2000.[43] According to the president of the Arab Organization of Disabled People, little progress has occurred since parliament passed the law on disabilities in 2000.[44]

In May 2014, as part of the project “Strengthening the role of the disability movement in promoting the rights of marginalised persons with disabilities in Lebanon,” implemented by Handicap International, a national conference on the subject of disability and ways of “Living in Dignity” was held in Beirut. The event addressed the lack of some of the most basic services, standards and eligibility criteria that can enable persons with disabilities to live independently and in dignity.[45]