Casualties Overview

The Nepali, NGO Informal Service Sector Center (INSEC) recorded 41 mine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in 2010. For the first time in Monitor reporting, there were no fatalities among mine/ERW casualties in Nepal. Of the total casualties, 33 were civilians; the majority of civilian casualties (20, or over 60%) were children (12 boys; eight girls); most adult civilian casualties were women (seven) and six were men. In 2010, for the first time, security personnel were included in INSEC casualty data (seven police; one military personnel). Most casualties (34) occurred in incidents caused by unexploded or abandoned improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which were all recorded as various types of improvised hand grenades.[1] No deminer casualties were reported for 2010.[2]

This represented a significant decrease from the 70 civilian mine/ERW casualties reported by INSEC for 2009,[3] and follows the trend in recent years of a “steady and continuous reduction in the number of incidents and casualties in Nepal.”[4]

The total number of casualties in Nepal remained unknown. The Monitor identified 867 mine/ERW casualties (221 killed; 646 injured) between 2003 and 2010.[5] From 1999 to 2002, the Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines (NCBL) reported 1,326 casualties (522 killed; 804 injured).[6] However, the NCBL figures were thought to include other conflict casualties.[7]

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Nepal is unknown, but at least 646.

Assessing victim assistance needs

No comprehensive needs assessments were reported for 2010. Handicap International (HI) used INSEC’s casualty surveillance system to assess the needs of survivors, provide assistance, and monitor follow-up.[8] A HI personalized social support project also assessed the needs of individual survivors and persons with disabilities who were beneficiaries.[9] Information provided by INSEC was also used by the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) in Nepal to assist strategic and operational planning, including victim assistance.[10] The NCBL collected information on casualties and survivor needs.[11]

Victim assistance coordination[12]

Throughout 2010, victim assistance continued to be discussed in the meetings of the Mine Action Joint Working Group (MAJWG), an informal working committee that coordinates mine action activities including victim assistance, and includes government and UN agencies, NGOs, and the ICRC. The MAJWG was chaired by UNMAT (UNICEF and the UN Mine Action Service) until August 2010 when the chair role was taken over by the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR). [13] Five meetings were held in 2010.[14]

A five-year National Victim Assistance Strategic Framework was developed with the main victim assistance agencies under the leadership of the MoPR in August 2009. However the strategy was not yet being used as a framework for victim assistance activities by June 2011.[15] Victim assistance stakeholders had resolved to launch a specific Victim Assistance Working Group by November 2009.[16] However this had not eventuated by September 2011.[17]

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Health and Population, and the MoPR were responsible for caring for people with disabilities and for the provision of physical rehabilitation. However, most people with disabilities continued to rely on international organizations for regular physical rehabilitation. [18]

Survivor inclusion

No inclusion of survivors in planning or coordination was reported. Survivors were included in the implementation of victim assistance activities such as psychological support and advocacy through the NCBL’s informal National Network of Mine Victims.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities in 2010[19]

In 2011, UNICEF reported that since 2005, almost all mine/ERW survivors, including 300 children, had received adequate and timely medical care and rehabilitation services when needed.[20] In 2009, a mine action evaluation reported that areas of victim assistance other than physical rehabilitation received “little or no attention.”[21] Few significant changes in the availability of other areas of victim assistance were reported, however some new socio-economic inclusion initiatives have been reported since 2009.

No significant improvement in accessibility of emergency medical care was reported. However support to the health sector increased to address increased demand due to a worsened security situation. In 2010, the ICRC provided medical supplies to 17 hospitals to help them cope with an influx of patients following unrest, compared to nine in 2009. ICRC also ran skills training courses for trauma-room specialists from 29 hospitals.[22] Ambulances continued to encounter obstruction and suffer damage during strikes and demonstrations; these services were maintained with ICRC support.[23]  In some cases new mine/ERW survivors who could not be treated in district hospitals could be flown to Kathmandu for emergency medical care.[24]

Although construction of a trauma center at Bir Hospital in Kathmandu was completed in 2008, the much-needed center was still not operational by mid-2011.[25]

The number of prostheses produced at the two ICRC supported centers increased significantly in 2010. This was likely due in large part to the ICRC’s support since 2009 of the Yerahity Rehabilitation Center managed by the Nepal Army.[26] Strong links between HI, the ICRC, and the Nepal Army for providing referrals and information sharing benefited mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities. More generally rehabilitation centers faced challenges with sustainability. HI encouraged the relevant government institutions to take more responsibility for the financing of rehabilitation centers, with a view to eventually phasing out its support of rehabilitation centers.[27] Financial support will gradually be reduced over several years, although managerial and technical support will continue beyond that. The Government and, in particular, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has shown a commitment to providing financial support to the existing centers that provide for services for persons with disabilities. Three HI-supported centers received funding from the ministry through June 2011. Similarly the MoPR has responsibility for providing rehabilitation services to victims of conflict.[28]

Psychological assistance was reported to be almost non-existent.[29] This remained true in overall in 2010, however, each community affected by a mine/ERW incident received emergency risk education, including psychological support aspects within a period of about 10 days after the incident.[30] The NCBL continued to provide some informal counseling together with other activities and supported the National Network of Mine Victims, an informal survivor peer support network, but lacked funds to expand the program or adequately identify and engage other survivors.[31] In November 2010, NCBL held an awareness-raising workshop for members of its National Network of Mine Victims and other survivors.  The network had members in 22 of Nepal’s 75 districts and NCBL had facilitators in 46 districts. The workshop included civilian mine/ERW survivors as well as former combatants from the Nepal Army, military police, national police, the non-state armed group People’s Liberation Army and people with disabilities from other causes. This was the first time that all these groups had come together.[32]

There were some newly reported initiatives for the social and economic inclusion of mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities. The Nepal Red Cross Society ran a micro-economic program for victims of the conflict who lost mobility and the International Nepal Fellowship, in conjunction with Partnership for New Life, provided socio-economic inclusion and vocational training programs for people with physical disabilities.[33] UNICEF and its partners provided two-year education grants to 100 child survivors severely affected by mines/ERW. In addition, especially vulnerable families with the most affected child survivors (child survivors having grave or multiple disabilities) received a special grant for a family income-generating project.[34] NCBL reported success in its economic inclusion services for survivors, with nearly all beneficiaries maintaining their employment after a period of support.[35]

MoPR, UNICEF, HI, and the National Federation for Disabled Nepal disseminated a victim assistance handbook throughout Nepal (in 70 districts) to service providers, including health and physical rehabilitation centers, DPOs, human rights groups and Village Development Committees. The handbook was provided together with an orientation session. Monitoring of the handbook’s use indicated that it was used to improve understand what types of services are available, to learn about the rights of survivors, and to advocate for survivors’ rights.[36]

The government Conflict Victim Relief and Rehabilitation Program supports mine/ERW survivors. As part of Nepal’s peace process support program, a revised Procedure on Citizen’s Relief, Compensation and Financial Support was endorsed in 2010 by the MoPR that included specific provisions for mine/ERW survivors. It was not reported what the provisions were, but the procedure is used to allocate services such as health care as well as compensation.[37] However, more generally mine/ERW survivors did not receive adequate recognition of their needs because they represented only a small number of the people who by definition received rights as conflict victims, including many internally displaced persons. Procedures for receiving benefits and services as a mine/ERW survivor with a disability were often prohibitively complicated. These involved registering with two or three different ministries that lacked internal coordination procedures.[38]

Nepal has developed specific policies and laws regarding the rights of persons with disabilities, but most of them were not implemented.[39] Legislation mandates access to employment, education, transportation, and other state services for persons with disabilities. Discrimination against persons with disabilities continued to be reported in all the above areas.[40]

Nepal ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol on 7 May 2010.