Summary action points based on 2012 findings­

·         Increased services are needed in all areas of victim assistance including physical rehabilitation and employment.

·         There is an acute need for improved facilities and professional capacity in the rehabilitation sector. The number of patients receiving prosthetic devices decreased by 40% due to difficulties in production during the first half of 2012.

·         Although limited, donor funding is making an impact that could be significantly increased; for example, Chad reported allocating funding from Australia to strengthen existing rehabilitation centers with the continued engagement of the ICRC.

Victim assistance commitments

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

Casualties

Casualties overview

The Monitor recorded at least 15 mine/ERW casualties in Chad; 13 of them were children.[1] However, given the lack of a national data collection and reporting systems, it is expected that there were a larger number of new casualties that were unreported. In 2011, there were 34 casualties reported and 28 in 2010.[2] The National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND) reported 44 new mine/ERW casualties (13 killed and 31 injured) between 2010 and 2012 but did not provide differentiated data for each year.[3] However, the total figures were inconsistent with previous CND reports of annual casualty rates[4] and Monitor casualty data.[5]

At least 2,879 mine/ERW casualties had been identified by the end of 2012: 1,154 people were killed, another 1,527 injured, and 198 unknown.[6]

The number of casualties caused by cluster munition remnants or the use of cluster munitions in Chad remained unknown due to a lack of detailed and comprehensive data collection.[7]

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Chad is not known, though there were thought to be more than 1,600.[8] Between 1998 and 2012, the CND estimated that there were at least 2,834 survivors and family members of people killed by mines/ERW registered in Chad but recognized that this data was not complete.[9]

Victim assistance since 1999

Services for mine/ERW survivors in Chad have been hampered by intermittent internal conflict and cross-border conflicts, as well as serious under-funding, through to 2012. Data on mine/ERW casualties is not adequate for use; information on the needs of survivors was not available. Most services were provided by the ICRC and NGOs. An overall need to establish services and capacities outside the capital N’Djamena remained; especially in remote and affected areas, such as the northern part of the country.

As of 2012, to access most services many survivors still needed to be transferred to N’Djamena, where the existing facilities were, however, few and inadequate in view of the needs. Rehabilitation was limited to just two centers and those services were not free of charge unless covered by the ICRC, which also continued to provide a referral system and local staff training. There was a persistent lack of physiotherapists and trained service providers; none worked in mine-affected areas. Psychosocial support, vocational training and economic reintegration opportunities for survivors and persons with disabilities were extremely limited; the situation was exacerbated by widespread societal discrimination against them. Legislation addressing persons with disabilities was not adequately enforced. Government attention to victim assistance increased through 2010 and 2011 with the development of the National Action Plan on Victim Assistance, which was adopted in May 2012. However, few initiatives were undertaken in 2012 to implement this action plan.[10]

There were no significant changes in the accessibility, availability, or quality of victim assistance services in Chad in 2012. The government operated few education, employment, and rehabilitation programs for persons with disabilities.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2012, no needs assessments were made in Chad. The CND country-wide mapping study of all mine/ERW survivors announced in 2011 as part of the implementation of the newly adopted National Action Plan on Victim Assistance did not appear to have been completed as planned; a census of mine victims and assessment of their needs was identified as a priority of the implementation strategy of the action plan presented by the CND at the Twelfth meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2012.[11]

Victim assistance coordination[12]

This first National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance was adopted in May 2012, to be implemented from 2012–2014.[13] The plan recognizes the principle of non-discrimination between mine/ERW victims and other victims and persons with disabilities.[14] The plan of action identifies five key objectives:

1.      Contact each survivor through organizations of mine/ERW victims and disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) and assess their needs and the best way to respond.

2.      Identify and reinforce community networks (including DPOs).

3.      Map and improve victim assistance activities.

4.      Develop a network of actors within the communities to provide psychological support and provide information on available services to victims.

5.      Identify and train all service providers in affected regions on victim assistance and improve accessibility to services in all parts of the country.[15]

The objectives of the National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance 2012–1014 have also been included in the Strategic Mine Action Plan 2013–2017, which was developed in 2012.[16]

In 2012, the CND organized two workshops in collaboration with other stakeholders. In January, a three-day workshop focused on synergies of activities for the rights of persons with disabilities. In November, a mine action planning workshop was organized, which provided follow up to the Victim Assistance Plan of Action adopted earlier in the year. In addition, towards the end of 2012 the CND worked to create a country-wide network of rehabilitation actors in Chad.[17] Members of this network include representatives of the CND, international organizations such as UNICEF, the ICRC, the two rehabilitation centers, and specialists, as well as mine survivors and other DPOs.[18]

Implementation of the draft action plan had been delayed due to the ongoing problems with victim assistance, including financial difficulties, the distance of rehabilitation centers from affected areas, and a lack of international technical assistance. However, in 2012 Chad reported allocating funding from the Australian Government to victim assistance, which with the continued engagement of ICRC, was expected to strengthen existing rehabilitation centers, especially the Kabalaye Physical Rehabilitation Center (Centre d’Appareillage et de Rééducation de Kabalaye, CARK).[19]

The Ministry of Social Affairs, National Solidarity and Family is responsible for protecting the rights of people with disabilities, including access to rehabilitation services.[20]

Chad provided updates on progress and challenges for victim assistance at the Convention on Cluster Munition and Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva in April and May 2012 and the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2012.[21] In January 2013, Chad submitted its first Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report since 2010. Form J provided an overview of victims of mine/ERW over the years 2010 to 2012 and recognized that little had been done in the past on victim assistance due to lack of funding.[22]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

In 2012, two mine/ERW victims were working in the CARK as assistant technicians in prosthetics production. The ICRC also reported working closely with survivor associations, especially in affected areas, to gather information and enhance referrals to rehabilitation centers.[23] Survivors did not participate in international meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty or Convention on Cluster Munitions as part of their country’s delegation in 2012.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[24]

Emergency and continuing medical care

In 2012, there was relative stability during the year with the end of armed conflict that had been ongoing since 2010. In response, the ICRC scaled back its emergency activities to focus mainly on providing surgical care in the east and treatment to amputees throughout the country.[25] An ICRC surgical team at the Abéché Regional Hospital continued to treat emergency cases from across eastern Chad and also provided materials and supplies. In order to increase access to treatment, destitute casualties had their surgical costs covered. However, most surgical cases were unrelated to armed conflict.[26]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

In 2012, access to rehabilitation remained difficult for most of those in need. Rehabilitation services were only available in six of the 23 regions in Chad. Technical difficulties in the production of prosthetics during the first semester of 2012 led to an overall 40% decrease in the number of patients who received prosthetics.[27] The main causes included the lack of financial support from the social system to cover the cost of rehabilitation treatment, the lack of facilities and professionals, and the burden of the cost of transport when it was available.[28] There was no direct involvement by the government in physical rehabilitation and patients had to pay for services.[29]

In 2012, the ICRC reported that, although the exact number of people with disabilities in need of physical rehabilitation services is unknown, it was obvious that the two functioning centers do not have the infrastructure and human resources capacity to meet existing needs. It supported regular training for local staff of rehabilitation centers. The presence of an expatriate physiotherapist allowed for improvements in the quality of services provided at the CARK and MNDP.[30]

The ICRC continued to provide financial and logistical assistance to survivors to increase access to rehabilitation services by allowing survivors living in remote areas, especially from the northern part of the country, to come to N’Djamena’s rehabilitation centers. The ICRC paid for transportation to the capital and also covered physical rehabilitation costs including prostheses and physiotherapy services. Following the demolition of the AEHPT-run accommodation center in August 2010 which had been used by the ICRC for patients coming from outside the capital,[31] only a limited number of beneficiaries with particular difficulties, especially children and those without any family members in N’Djamena, were provided with accommodation and food during their rehabilitation.[32] Throughout 2012, the ICRC supported an assessment of the possibilities for the CARK to become more autonomous and less dependent on the ICRC in the future. The ICRC advocated for the Ministry for Health to increase public funding for the production of prosthetics at the CARK and MNDP. It also conducted activities to identify additional international partners.[33]

Laws and policies

The Ministry of the Civil Service adopted a recruiting policy inclusive of persons with disabilities in 2012.[34] A law adopted in 2007 protecting the rights of persons with disabilities remained inoperative by the end of 2012, pending the passing of a decree to make it enforceable.[35] No legislation or programs exist to ensure access to buildings for persons with disabilities.[36]

Chad signed the CRPD in September 2012.