Summary action points based on findings

• Dedicate increased national and international funding to address the needs and promote the rights of mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors and other persons with disabilities.
  • Ensure that broader programs, such as international cooperation for post-conflict reconstruction and poverty reduction, reach the most vulnerable members of society, including survivors and other persons with disabilities.
  • Train mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities to advocate for equal opportunities and increased access to assistance.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW who are in need. Guinea-Bissau has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol V. It also has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Guinea-Bissau ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 24 September 2014.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

No casualties were reported in Guinea-Bissau in 2015, however this may not be representative. In past years, casualties were often reported long after they occurred.

In 2014, 41 casualties were recorded including at least 24 people killed, and another 16 injured; for one casualty it was not reported if the person survived.[1] Of the total recorded casualties in 2014, 22 people were killed and seven injured in a single incident when a minibus drove over a landmine near the town of Mansoa in the north of the country on 26 September 2015.[2] In October, two people were killed and six injured in an incident involving an unknown explosive device in Gabu province.[3]

The number of casualties in 2014 was more than four times the number of mine/ERW casualties that occurred in 2013, when 10 mine/ERW casualties were recorded—all within the region of Oio.[4]

Mine/ERW casualties continued to occur in 2016, one casualty was reported in the first half of 2016 when a boy was killed by ERW in Bissora, Oio region.[5]

There were a total of 1,574 casualties from mines/ERW reported from 1963 to December 2015.[6] However, this was not believed to be a comprehensive figure.[7] An estimated 80% of all casualties were male, the majority of whom were farmers.[8] No information was available on whether the figure included both military and civilian casualties.

Cluster munition casualties

While the total number of casualties from cluster munitions is not known in Guinea-Bissau, there were 11 casualties in 1998 during an attack on a weapons depot; the explosion that caused the casualties involved cluster munitions.[9]

Victim Assistance

As of December 2015, there were more than 1,426 mine/ERW survivors recorded in Guinea-Bissau. Some of these may have already died, but it is likely there are many more unrecorded.[10]

Victim assistance coordination

The National Mine Action Coordination Center (Centro Nacional de Coordenação da Accão Anti-Minas, CAAMI), the national focal point for victim assistance, continued to find its efforts to coordinate victim assistance largely stymied due to a lack of national or international resources.[11] Mine/ERW survivors were included in a target of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy 2011–2015 that aims for the “equal opportunity for rehabilitation, and reintegration of all persons with disabilities (victim of armed dispute or conflict, included the mine/ERW injured people),” their full participation in the socio-economic reconstruction, and the re-establishment of their rights and dignity.[12]

At the end of 2013, Guinea-Bissau presented the objectives of the National Victim Assistance Strategy for the first time. The objectives included establishing a new coordination mechanism on victim assistance in the country, implementing a new national data collection system, strengthening current victim assistance programs, increasing mobilization of donor funds to such programs, and increasing employment levels of survivors in national and international organizations.[13]

Political instability in 2015 limited victim assistance coordination and planning.[14]

Guinea-Bissau did not make any statements regarding victim assistance at meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2015.

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

In 2015, mine/ERW survivors were included in the planning and provision of victim assistance through representative organizations such as Federation for the Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which represents 12 organizations of persons with disabilities, or the Persons with Disabilities’ Association for the Struggle for National Freedom. The mine victims association (Combatentes de Liberdade de Patria) was not operational in 2015, following the death of its president.[15]

The Federation for the Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in partnership with Handicap International started a project to strengthen the rights of persons with disabilities in 2016. The National Assembly, various government ministries, and civil society organizations are participating.[16]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Aside from the opening of the Center for Physical Rehabilitation (Centro de Reabilitação Motora, CRM) in the capital in 2011, there has been little progress overall in improving access and quality of assistance to survivors in Guinea-Bissau in recent years due to a lack of funds and of government support. There were few facilities near mine-affected areas, emergency transportation was almost non-existent, and services were further hampered by a lack of communication mechanisms and roads/transport.[17] Through 2015, the CRM remained the only physical rehabilitation center for the country, providing free rehabilitation services for survivors in economic need.[18]

In 2013, the CRM, in cooperation with the ICRC, the Federation of the Association of Persons with Disabilities, and other national organizations, began an outreach service to provide services for people living in rural areas.[19] These field visits increased in 2015 with the Guinea-Bissau Red Cross and other national organizations raising awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities, providing basic services, and making referrals to specialized services.[20] The CRM reported increased geographic coverage and increases in numbers of persons served in 2015, including services for women and children.[21] In 2015, the ICRC signed an agreement with the Senegalese mine action authority to provide services to Senegalese mine/ERW survivors in Guinea-Bissau because the rehabilitation center in Ziguinchor has difficulties meeting demand. At the end of 2015, five patients from Senegal began treatment in Guinea-Bissau.[22]

The ICRC reimbursed the costs for patients, including for mine/ERW survivors who accessed services, provided equipment and materials, and supported on-site technical training programs to improve the quality of the service.[23] In 2015, the CRM provided six (11% of the 54 total) prostheses to mine/ERW survivors, a decrease from eight prostheses for survivors in 2014 (18% of 46), continuing the decline that began in 2014.[24]

Article 5 of the constitution of Guinea-Bissau prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, but implementation was weak. There was no law mandating access to public buildings and no efforts were made to ensure access to buildings or streets.[25] No new policies to respond to the rights and needs of persons with disabilities were adopted in Guinea-Bissau between 2010 and 2014.[26] Some mine survivors were eligible to receive pensions for persons with disabilities from the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Poverty Reduction (MSSPR).[27] Former military personnel with disabilities received pensions from the Ministry of Defense and Ex-Combatants, but these programs did not adequately address health, housing, or food needs.[28]

Guinea-Bissau has a federation for inclusive sports supported by the ICRC, which has participated in international sporting events.[29]

In 2014, Guinea-Bissau ratified the CRPD; the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Poverty Reduction is the focal point for the convention’s implementation. In early 2015, the rights of children with disabilities featured prominently in Guinea-Bissau’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in the UN Human Rights Council, with a number of recommendations concerning reducing discrimination against children with disabilities.[30] The civil society submission to the UPR reported that persons with disabilities are among the most disadvantaged in all regards. They experience neglect within their communities and throughout the whole system such as health, education, and social protectionThe submission recommended that Guinea-Bissau adopt sectoral plans for the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.[31] Plan International and Handicap International operated inclusive schools in addition to the two national schools for visually and hearing impaired students.[32] The first national conference on the rights of persons with disabilities was held in December 2014.[33]