Action points based on findings

• Further develop a sustainable mechanism to collect information on ongoing mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties and their needs in southern and central regions of the Republic of Iraq. It is certain that there were many more casualties in Iraq than have been identified.
• Increase participation of survivors and their representative organizations in the planning and coordination of victim assistance and disability issues throughout all of Iraq.
• Ensure equal access to all services and benefits for both male and female mine/ERW survivors.

Victim assistance commitments

Iraq is responsible for significant numbers of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW who are in need. Iraq has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Iraq acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 20 March 2013.

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Iraq is estimated to be at least 48,000–68,000.[1]

Victim assistance since 2015

Economic and political crises in Iraq hampered the delivery of medical and socio-economic services, complicating access for persons with disabilities and increasing their vulnerability, as well as that of the general population throughout the country. While Iraq suffered from a financial crisis, the focus of donors and international NGOs has been on the massive needs of internally displaced persons. This has diverted financial support away from victim assistance and minimized the scale of service provision to mine/ERW survivors across the country.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that “Iraq’s failing health system is struggling to meet the needs of its people while lack of sanitation, overcrowding in some areas, malnutrition and water contamination are contributing to the spread of disease.”[2]

There was a need to ensure that programs supporting persons with disabilities who acquired impairment as a result of armed conflict were fully in line with the CRPD. In 2015, a survivor’s representative from Iraq also expressed an interest in a visit by the Special Rapporteur. In 2016, key UN agencies recommended that the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to visit Iraq, taking into account the standing invitation that the government of Iraq issued to all.[3]

Assessing victim assistance needs

No national needs assessments were reported.

Iraq reported that it lacked resources to expand the geographical scope of its ongoing mine victim survey.

The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recommended that Iraq establish a system of data collection and analysis for persons with disabilities, disaggregated by age and sex, and respectful of privacy and confidentiality standards. They also suggested that Iraq include the Washington Group on Disability Statistics Short Set of Questions.[4] Handicap International (HI, now Humanity and Inclusion as of January 2018) assessed the needs of persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, as part of its victim assistance activities. HI’s survey also identified the impact on members of the beneficiaries’ families.[5]

Victim assistance coordination

In 2016 ad hoc victim assistance coordination meetings were held for central and southern Iraq, often connected with other events and celebrations of the rights of persons with disabilities. There were no regular victim assistance coordination meetings in the Kurdistan region. The situation of persons with disabilities is raised in the Health and Protection clusters and working groups. HI regularly gather actors involved in services for persons with disabilities.[6]

In October 2016, UNMAS held a three-week Risk Education and Victim Assistance Management training course for 15 senior staff from the IKMAA. The course, supported by Japan, included planning, implementing, and monitoring a victim assistance program in line with international standards.[7]

Iraq provided updates on victim assistance at the Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2017, the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2017, and the Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in Santiago, Chile in 2016. Iraq reported casualty data and information about victim assistance services provided in central and southern Iraq and in Kurdistan, through form J of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report and form H of its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report for 2016.[8]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

Mine survivors participated in the two victim assistance meetings held in central and southern Iraq through the Iraqi Alliance for Disability (IADO). A mine survivor—who is a disability rights leader and head of IADO—also participated in other public events and informal coordination meetings.[9]

There was a need to include persons with disabilities in decision making processes, “with a view to creating a conducive environment for their meaningful participation in society as dynamic, creative and effective agents of change.”[10]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities

Emergency and continuing medical care

Although some healthcare services for persons with disabilities were available in Iraq, such services appeared to have decreased over time. Service providers were mostly located in larger urban centers, with beneficiaries having to travel long distances and pay for transportation.[11]

The ICRC continued to strengthen the emergency response capacity of hospitals in violence-prone areas. Doctors received training in emergency-room trauma care and war surgery. Heavily conflict-affected areas received specific additional support, including in Ninewa Governorate, support from an ICRC surgical team and new operating rooms.[12]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

More than 37,000 persons with disabilities received physiotherapy and other services at nine state-run and one ICRC-managed physical rehabilitation centers in 2016.[13] The state-run centers received ICRC support and supplies. Authorities were encouraged to develop long-term strategies to ensure the welfare of persons with disabilities. In 2016, centers provided 2,955 prostheses in total, including 552 for mine/ERW survivors, marking a decrease compared to 2015, with 744 for mine/ERW survivors of 3,197 prostheses in total,[14] which was a slight decrease from 2014, when 880 prostheses were provided for mine/ERW survivors from a total of 3,098.[15] The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of Iraq provided 254 prostheses for mine survivors in 2016, in addition it provided as upper limbs and distributed assistance devices.[16]

The economic crisis had a direct impact on the budgeting of all rehabilitation service providers, who as a result lacked material and supplies. In response, HI increased the capacity building of physiotherapists and provided assistive devices and prosthetics materials to four centers.[17]

With HI support, IADO began distributing assistive devices and providing physiotherapy for internally displaced persons in camps in Baghdad.[18] Disability Information Points, managed by local DPOs in each of the three governorates of the Kurdistan region, continued to provide information about available services, with the support of HI.

Economic and social inclusion and psychological support

Economic inclusion activities continued to be carried out on a limited basis in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdistan region as well as Kirkuk seriously lacked vocational training opportunities for persons with disabilities, including survivors. Additional vocational training was needed to help fill the gap faced by persons with disabilities who often have had only limited access to education. Furthermore, during the conflict, some institutions providing economic inclusion ceased to operate or exist and had not been reopened.[19]

The DMA referred mine/ERW victims (both survivors and family members of people killed by mines/ERW), along with other victims of armed conflict, for the provision of untaxed livelihood loans, free land, and adapted cars, and financed group marriages for mine/ERW victims (identified through the mine/ERW survey).[20] Also, as part of its program to support income-generating activities, thousands of female heads-of-households whose spouses were victims of conflict (including victims of landmines/ERW) continued to receive assistance from the ICRC to overcome government obstacles preventing women from registering for benefits and support for income-generating activities.[21]

Some patients from ICRC-supported rehabilitation centers received livelihood support and sports events were organized with local partners.[22]

While some hospitals had some capacity to provide psychological support to mine/ERW survivors immediately following a traumatic incident, Iraq lacked sufficiently-trained professionals to provide appropriate psychological support to mine survivors. The availability of psychological support and follow-up trauma care in Iraq, including for internally displaced persons, has been inadequate to meet needs.[23] A review of the situation for persons with disabilities in 2016 recommended that the state expand and improve specialized healthcare and psychosocial support.[24]

HI provided mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services. Provision of MHPSS was one of the main overall concerns due to the massive shortage of qualified staff and lack of support to the entire sector.[25]

Laws and policies

As noted above, increased conflict in Iraq severely effects the lives of persons with disabilities, including survivors.

A review in 2016 recommended that Law 38 (2013) on the Care of Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs should be revised to ensure full compliance with the CRPD. It also noted that the widespread charity-based perception of disability in Iraq needed to change to a rights-based approach to disability, in line with the obligations of the CRPD.[26]

Iraq’s Council of Ministers approved a 3% public sector employment quota for persons with disabilities in 2013.[27] Simplification of the procedures required to claim disability benefits was needed, together with widespread dissemination of the accessible procedures.[28]

An independent mechanism to oversee and monitor implementation of the CRPD, including mine survivors’ representative organization, AIDO, was established in 2015. In May 2015, representatives of DPOs from throughout Iraq received training on conducting a parallel (shadow) CRPD report. IADO was facilitating the process with HI support to finalize the report in 2017.[29]