Casualties Overview

The National Regulatory Authority for the unexploded ordnance (UXO)/Mine Action Sector in the Lao PDR (NRA) reported 117 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties for 2010. The majority of casualties (67) were children: 52 boys and 15 girls. Adult casualties included 42 men and eight women.[1] The NRA revised casualty data for 2009 down to 117, the same number as reported for 2010, and revised casualties for 2008 to 304.[2]

The NRA did not report which devices caused casualties in 2008–2010, although that data had previously been available for 2009. After more than five years invested in the NRA data collection system there was little or no improvement in the quality of the data available. For one year, 2008, the NRA reported the same number of annual casualties (300) that it had previously been estimating. In 2009 and 2010, the number of casualties was similar to those being reported before 2008.[3]

As of the end of 2010, the NRA had identified at least 50,370 mine/ERW (including unexploded submunitions) casualties, including 29,469 people killed and 20,901 injured since 1964. The majority of casualties recorded (30,128) occurred during the conflict years from 1964 to 1973.[4] By region, the highest numbers of casualties were recorded in Savannakhet province (12,500) and Xieng Khouang province (6,000).[5]

Unexploded submunitions were reported to have caused 7,571 casualties in the period 1964–2009 (3,170 were killed; 4,368 injured; 33 outcome unknown).[6]

Victim Assistance

Lao PDR has estimated that there are some 12,500–15,000 mine/ERW survivors still alive, including approximately 2,500 unexploded submunition survivors.[7]

Assessing victim assistance needs

Lao PDR reported that the National UXO Victim and Accident Survey formed the basis of a national database that was being used in priority-setting for activities including victim assistance.[8] Victim assistance providers, including the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) and the Association for Aid and Relief (AAR), used NRA casualty data to identify and contact survivors in need of their services.[9] World Education (WE) reported that it had used NRA data to compare to their own survivor data.[10] In 2011, the NRA was planning the implementation of a survivor tracking system that “should eventually provide an accurate picture of survivors needs.”[11]

Victim assistance coordination in 2010[12]

The NRA’s Victim Assistance Unit is responsible for victim assistance policy development, sector coordination, and liaison between stakeholders, with the goal of ensuring that the needs of all mine/ERW survivors are met.[13] Lao PDR identified the NRA as the national focal point/coordination mechanism for implementation of victim assistance under Article 5 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[14]

The NRA’s Victim Assistance Unit continued developing its Victim Assistance Strategic Plan, which was to be finalized after the completion of six position papers (on data collection, medical care, physical rehabilitation, psychosocial rehabilitation, economic rehabilitation, vocational training, and advocacy).[15]

The TWGVA held bi-monthly meetings in 2010, during which the NRA’s Victim Assistance Unit and other organizations working on victim assistance updated their activities and exchanged views. They also discussed cooperation at the central, provincial, and district levels. The main points of discussion in 2010 were data collection and the survivor tracking system, annual work plan, and organizing victim assistance workshops for provincial and district officials in every province. The TWGVA also discussed progress in designing the National Strategic Victim Assistance Plan and victim assistance position papers. Provincial and district level Labor and Social Welfare offices were requested to report all ERW incidents and casualties to the TWGVA.[16]

Lao PDR’s Safe Path Forward II strategic plan included a section containing a number of victim assistance objectives.[17] The strategy was yet to be endorsed by the government at the end of 2010. Lao PDR reported that the strategy’s victim assistance activities would be carried out following its endorsement.[18] The strategy and its victim assistance component were included in Lao PDR’s Millennium Development Goals Compact of October 2010.[19]

Several ministries have responsibility for services for persons with disabilities more generally, including the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW) and its “Department of Pension, Invalid and Disability,” the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education.[20]

Lao PDR reported on past victim assistance efforts for the period 1996 to the end of November 2010 in its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report and also made statements on victim assistance at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in October 2010 and at the Convention’s intersessional meetings in June 2011.[21]

Survivor Inclusion

Survivors and their representative organizations were included in TWGVA meetings and planning processes. The Lao Disabled Peoples Association (LDPA) was a regular member of the TWGVA, as were survivors working with WE and with Handicap International (HI).[22] Survivors working for WE participated in the implementation of its survivor assistance program.[23]

Lao PDR did not have a survivor on its delegation at the First Meeting of States Parties or the intersessional meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities in 2010[24]

There was some improvement in the availability of service with the expansion of the COPE prosthetics outreach program in 2010. However, the number of services provided in the year did not increase. A particularly high level of destitution in regions most contaminated by mines/ERW was reported by ICRC.[25] No specific measures to address the needs of survivors in remote areas were reported by Lao PDR. Overall, Lao PDR did not report on activities to increase the availability and accessibility of services or to guarantee the implementation of quality services, as called for in the Vientiane Action Plan of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[26] Mobilization of both national and international resources for victim assistance remained very challenging. In general the government had not found funding for services for persons with disabilities.[27]

In 2011 AAR launched an emergency medical care project in Xieng Khouang, one of the worst ERW affected provinces in Lao PDR.[28]

COPE, based at the National Rehabilitation Center (NRC) in Vientiane, continues to operate as a partnership with the Ministry of Health in cooperation with international NGOs. COPE provided the only prosthetics services and capacity-building in Lao PDR through the NRC and four provincial rehabilitation centers.

The number of people who received prostheses through COPE in 2010 was unchanged from the previous year. Approximately one third of those people served were mine/ERW survivors. A COPE outreach project initiated in 2009, COPE Connect, had expanded to eight provinces around the country by the end of 2010, with some focus on the most UXO-contaminated areas. In 2010, COPE introduced capacity-building of occupational therapists into its program in order to expand the application of occupational therapy into the five existing rehabilitation centers.[29]

The number of people receiving subsidized access to services through COPE from the ICRC SFD decreased by 20% compared to 2009. The majority of people supported by the SFD were from the most ERW-contaminated areas and many were members of ethnic minorities.[30] No change in the level of support provided by the Ministry of Health was reported.

According the National Mine Action Standards, personnel responsible for the manufacture and fitting of prosthetic devices must have qualifications to the corresponding International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics category.[31] The ICRC SFD reported that, in 2010, all assisted rehabilitation centers had staff sufficiently trained to produce the most needed prosthetic devices.[32]

AAR introduced a physiotherapist for training in the assessment of children and also improved services through follow-up as part of its wheelchair repair outreach system. By the end of May 2011, AAR had handed over its wheelchair manufacturing role to the NRC. WE retained Motivation to make recommendations for the future of production and Deseret International Charities continued to pay for materials.[33]

No significant increase in economic inclusion of mine/ERW survivors was reported; however, in 2010 some new sustainable employment and self-employment opportunities emerged. CPI began a partnership with the Lao Women’s Union to provide low-interest loans to female heads of households for home-based businesses in the ERW affected Xieng Khuang province.[34] In 2010, WE Australia partnered with WE Laos to develop a micro-finance institution based on a network of village banks focusing on poor, rural communities in Salavan province. In addition, WE continued to provide training and a small grants program specifically for ERW survivors and their families. [35] The NGO Cambodian War Amputees Rehabilitation Society (CWARS), in cooperation with LDPA, was building a vocational training center and creating a three-year-training program for survivors and people disabled by war in Savannakhet Province [36]

No change in psychosocial support activities was reported for 2010. This area remained among the greatest victim assistance challenges. However, survivors working on the WE UXO Survivor Assistance program provided peer support together with other project activities.[37]

Regulations protect persons with disabilities against discrimination; however, they lack the force of law. The law does not mandate accessibility to buildings or government services for persons with disabilities. The MLSW established regulations regarding building access, but lack of resources for infrastructure slowed the retrofitting of most buildings.[38]

In 2010, HI started an advocacy project for cluster munition survivors and family members including a component on local advocacy for survivors’ rights. The HI Lao Ban Advocates project with LDPA held a training session on disability rights advocacy for survivors in early 2011.[39]

The Draft Decree on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, which had been prepared at the beginning of 2008, was still pending government approval in mid-201l. The draft was being revised by the Ministry of Justice regarding legal terminology.[40] Lao PDR reported that, despite the Decree, not having passed a review of legislation made while drafting the victim assistance position papers had found existing legislation adequate for implementing the victim assistance provisions of the Convention on Cluster munitions. However the statement did not say which laws were found to be relevant and adequate.[41]

Lao PDR reported that policy on victim assistance was upgraded in the 2010–2020 Safe Path Forward II strategy to complement a 2001 law, which affords all citizens and persons with disabilities, in particular, the right to receive medical care without discrimination.[42] As of July 2011, the NRA had not reported that the Safe Path Forward II had been officially endorsed.[43]

According to the National Mine Action Standards, victim assistance projects must ensure that there is no discrimination against groups or individuals due to age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, or social status.[44] Lao PDR and the NRA, as well as survivors and victim assistance service providers, reported that differences in treatment in Lao PDR were based on survivors’ needs and that there was no discrimination in the provision of victim assistance services in 2010.[45]

In June 2011, Lao PDR presented a 10-year draft concept paper for addressing its obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including victim assistance. The concept paper projected a victim assistance budget of some US$23.2 million for the period 2011–2015, in line with the draft victim assistance strategy. The concept paper did not report projected national contributions, financial or in-kind, for the period.[46]

Lao PDR ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 25 September 2009.