Summary action points based on findings

• Improve the quality of physical rehabilitation services through funding, training, restructuring, and decentralization.
• Expand legislation and coordination for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Tajikistan is responsible for a significant number of survivors of landmines, cluster munitions, and explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. Tajikistan has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Tajikistan signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 22 March 2018.

Victim Assistance

The total number of known mine/ERW survivors recorded in Tajikistan is 489.[1]

Victim assistance since 2015

The first joint partnership program to promote the rights of both adults and children with disabilities in Tajikistan supported by the UN Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) Trust Fund was a two-year program for 2015–2016 that promoted mainstreaming of disability issues into policies, legislation, and programs; awareness-raising; and community-based rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities.[2] In 2016, the government approved the National Program on Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.

Assessing victim assistance needs

The Tajikistan National Mine Action Center(TNMAC) continued gathering detailed information on mine/ERW casualties and service provision.[3] After data collection training conducted by UNDP and ICRC staff, Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan volunteers continued the needs assessment for the ICRC project until the end of December 2016. Tajikistan reported that an evaluation of the needs basement survey data disaggregated by sex and age on mine/ERW victims indicated that the data more than 90% accurate.[4] The conditions at the national rehabilitation center were not yet adequate for conducting beneficiary-satisfaction surveys.[5]

Victim assistance coordination[6]

The Disability Support Unit (DSU) was created from the Tajik Victim Assistance Program in 2013 to reinforce the understanding that efforts to assist landmine/ERW survivors are part of broader disability and development frameworks.[7] The DSU Technical Working Group raised awareness on disability-inclusive development among members to promote sustainability of victim assistance. The Tajik National Center for Mine Action, with the support of UNDP, organized coordination meetings of the technical working group (TWG) on assistance to persons with disabilities, including those affected by mines/ERW. Four regional victim assistance meetings were held in the relevant regions in 2017.[8]

The new National Mine Action Strategy 2016–2020, which includes a victim assistance component, was developed through consultative process during 2015 and the beginning of 2016. The working groups were created to develop the strategy consisting from the representative of the Executive Office of the president, Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP), Ministry of Education and Sport, TNMAC and landmine survivors. The strategy was agreed with all relevant ministries.[9]

In October 2016, the government approved the National Program on Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities. The ICRC MoveAbility Foundation called the new program “comprehensive, covering both physical rehabilitation services and social inclusion and protection.”[10] The national program was developed by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and financial support from USAID and the United Nations Partnership to Promote the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD). At an event in January 2017, some 300 participants were given an overview of the objectives, tasks, and plans of action, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.[11]

Tajikistan provided updated information on victim assistance in reporting at the Mine Ban Treaty Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties in Vienna in December 2017 and in Form J of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report for 2017.[12]

Survivor inclusion and participation

Survivors’ organizations and networks and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) were included in national and local government coordinating groups. The society of persons with disabilities “Imkoniyat” and several key DPOs were involved in CRPD working group planning meetings. Landmine survivor NGO “Society of landmine survivors” in Sugd oblast was included in the local planning. “Taqdir” as well as mine/ERW victims and their family members participated in 4 April events for the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Plans for the Tajikistan Red Crescent and Imkoniyat to facilitate referrals to the national rehabilitation center were not achieved in 2016, because working with external organizations was not yet a priority for the State Enterprise Prosthetic-Orthopedic Plant (SEOP).[13]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[14]

Emergency medical care

Mine/ERW survivors received emergency medical care in Ministry of Health and Social Protection-run medical institutions. Despite the improvement in the quality of diagnosis and treatment of mine survivors there remained a shortage of experienced specialists, modern medical-diagnostic equipment, and training opportunities. Further training for health personnel on delivering disability inclusive services was needed.[15]

Ten surgeons, anesthetists, and trauma doctors from hospitals located in areas potentially prone to emergencies or contaminated by mines/ERW attended an ICRC regional seminar on the management of weapon wounds in Kazakhstan.[16]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

The Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population (MoHSPP) provides free physical rehabilitation services at the SEOP in Dushanbe The SEOP in Dushanbe was the only fully-functional rehabilitation center capable of providing prosthetics services in the entire country. The satellite center of Khujand only made repairs on existing devices. Remoteness and poor road conditions mean that some regions, including Sugd and Gorno-Badakhshan, are isolated for several months during the winter. The ICRC provide on-the-job training at the SEOP.[17]

The number of people in need of prosthetic and orthopedic products was increasing. An average of 20 mine/ERW survivors obtained prosthetic-orthopedic services in Dushanbe annually. The prosthetic workshop in Dushanbe was experiencing logistical and budgetary difficulties, with funding for materials not able meet the needs of all those in need of services.[18] In 2016, 14 prosthetic devices were manufactured and provided to mine/ERW survivors.[19] Renovation of the Khujand branch of the SEOP was completed in 2016, withfunding from the Japanese Embassy. The ICRC MoveAbility Foundation together with ICRC personnel installed machinery at the SEOP’s branch in Khujand and supervised the renovation of its facilities. Though the inauguration of the upgraded branch in Khujand was scheduled for January 2017, it already received patients by November 2016.[20]

The US NGO Polus Center presented trainings and provided direct assistance including prosthetic and mobility devices at the Summer Camp workshop in August 2017. The Polus Center began providing victim assistance services in Tajikistan with a fact-finding mission in 2015 and conducted a follow up visit to TNMAC to support victim assistance services in August 2016.[21]

Psychological assistance

In 2016, TNMAC resumed organization of its traditional summer rehabilitation camp. The two-week-long summer camp is organized for mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities and includes rehabilitation services, art-therapy, individual and group psychological sessions, and adaptive sport.[22] The summer camp was held again in 2017.[23]

Laws and policies

The December 2010 Law on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, which includes standards similar to those of the CRPD,[24] guarantees the physical accessibility of infrastructure for social life and to public transportation. Any planning, construction, or reconstruction that does not follow the law is prohibited and penalties can be applied.[25] From 2014 through 2017, 126 architects were trained in accessible design, including several with the support of UNDP.[26]

TNMAC has as its mandate the victim assistance pillar and is the governmental body with legal responsibilities for the coordination and implementation of victim assistance activities. A Law on Humanitarian Mine Action (#1338) was signed by the president of Tajikistan on 23 July 2016. This law specifically refers to victim assistance in Article 12.[27]