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El Salvador

Last Updated: 09 December 2013

Casualties and Victim Assistance

Casualties and Victim Assistance

Summary findings

·         There was no multisectoral coordination of victim assistance in the Republic of El Salvador, though the Protection Fund for the War Wounded and Disabled coordinated with survivor associations regarding the provision ovictim assistance

·         Despite having self-identified as a State Party of the Mine Ban Treaty with a significanf

·         t number of survivors and need for assistance, El Salvador did not report internationally on its victim assistance activities for 2012

·         The Protection Fund increased its budget for victim assistance in 2012, opened accessible offices, and completed construction on a new rehabilitation center for victims of armed conflict

Victim assistance commitments

El Salvador is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. El Salvador has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and is a State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties Overview

All known casualties by end 2012

4,037

Casualties in 2012

0 (2011: 2)

2012 casualties by outcome

0 (2011: 1 killed; 1 injured)

There were no casualties from mines or ERW identified in El Salvador in 2012.[1] In 2011, the National Police’s Division of Arms and Explosives (DAE) reported two casualties from ERW.[2] The last confirmed mine casualty was in 1994.

There were known to be at least 4,037 casualties in El Salvador through the end of 2012.[3] The number of people killed and injured out of the total was not reported, but most registered mine/ERW casualties are thought to be survivors.[4]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2012, at least 3,159 mine/ERW survivors were registered in El Salvador. However, the total number is likely closer to 4,000 since the majority of recorded mine/ERW casualties were people who were injured, and most additional casualties registered in 2010 and 2011 were survivors.[5]

Victim assistance since 1999[6]

In 1999, nearly all victim assistance services were only available in El Salvador’s capital and most, except for medical care, were provided by international organizations. Established in 1996, the Protection Fund for the Injured and Disabled as a Result of the Armed Conflict (Fondo de Protección de Lisiados y Discapacitados a Consecuencia del Conflicto Armado, Protection Fund, or Protection Fund for War Wounded and Disabled), enabled military and civilian survivors[7] to access a range of services and benefits including medical and rehabilitation services, pensions, subsidies and economic benefits, and vocational training, and economic reintegration programs.

Initially, the main focus of victim assistance activities in El Salvador was on developing the physical rehabilitation capacity in the country by opening prosthetics workshops and through the establishment of the University of Don Bosco School of Prosthetics and Orthotics in the late 1990s. The university is a world leader in prosthetics training and the only International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) Category II level school in Latin America. However, despite these investments, access to prosthetics in public rehabilitation centers was limited and survivors continuously found the quality of prosthetic devices to be insufficient for their needs, with only modest improvements in recent years. In the early period of victim assistance monitoring, many international programs closed or transferred projects to national NGOs or governmental programs; by 2009, nearly all victim assistance activities were carried out through national capacity with national funds.

In 2001, Landmine Survivor Network (LSN, also Survivor Corps) began work in the country, initiating the only peer-to-peer support program and one of the only psychological support programs available to mine/ERW survivors. The program was nationalized in 2009 as the Network of Survivors and Persons with Disabilities (Fundación Red de Sobrevivientes y Personas con Discapacidad-El Salvador, Network of Survivors).

Starting in 2005, the Ministry of Health began to decentralize healthcare throughout the country. In 2009, the Protection Fund also decentralized its offices. Starting in 2009, increased government funding for victim assistance allowed for greater opportunities for economic inclusion programs, an area that had previously been neglected by government service providers.

Victim assistance coordination and planning in El Salvador has been intermittent; changes in government leadership have resulted in frequent restructuring of coordination mechanisms for war-victims, victim assistance, and disability issues. Overlapping functions among the Protection Fund, military and veteran agencies, and the Council for Integrated Attention for Persons with Disabilities (Consejo Nacional de Atención Integral a las Personas con Discapacidad, CONAIPD) have also complicated coordination efforts.

In 2009, an enhanced political focus on the rights of El Salvador’s war-wounded, including mine/ERW survivors, resulted in increased availability of all victim assistance services provided through the Protection Fund. The Protection Fund and other service providers increased the availability of programs offering microcredit, peer-to-peer support, and group therapy as they expanded their geographic coverage throughout the country.

Victim Assistance in 2012

In 2012, victim assistance continued to be mainly coordinated and implemented by the Protection Fund, which is an implementing government agency, rather than by a multisectoral coordinating body. The Protection Fund budget continued to increase, resulting in more services available to a growing[8] number of beneficiaries. All other service providers reported static or decreasing budgets to respond to the needs of mine/ERW victims and other persons with disabilities.

In 2012, the Network of Survivors worked in coalition with other disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) to monitor and assess progress in the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2012, the Protection Fund carried out a series of consultations with armed-conflict victims, including mine/ERW survivors, to collect up-to-date information regarding their needs in all areas of victim assistance, including health and rehabilitation, economic inclusion, and psychological support. Between January and December, representatives of the Protection Fund visited 12 different locations throughout the country that were designed to be accessible to survivors in all 14 departments of El Salvador. A total of 1,882 armed-conflict survivors participated in the consultations. Information collected was shared with all units of the Protection Fund with a goal of improving services to best meet the identified needs.

On an ongoing basis, the Protection Fund collected feedback from survivors on their needs and suggested ways to better address those needs through meetings of the Consultative Group and by maintaining regular communication with registered beneficiaries[9] in person and by phone.[10] The Network of Survivors reported that the Protection Fund had made a significant effort to maintain a permanent dialogue with survivors regarding their needs. However, the network did not identify concrete actions taken by the Protection Fund to improve services based on feedback received.[11]

In 2011 and 2012, the Office in Defense of Human Rights with a coalition of DPOs, including the Network of Survivors, surveyed persons with disabilities regarding the national implementation of the CRPD. The survey interviewed a total of 756 people, all persons with disabilities or their family members; 59% were based in urban areas and 40% were living in rural areas.[12]

As in previous years, various victim assistance actors collected information from their members and beneficiaries on an ongoing basis in order to determine priorities in providing support.[13]

Victim assistance coordination[14]

Government coordinating body/focal point

The Protection Fund: for all persons disabled due to armed conflict;

CONAIPD: for all persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors;

The Coordination Unit in Support of the Disabled of the Armed Forces (Unidad de Coordinación y Apoyo a Discapacitados de la Fuerza Armada, UCADFA) and the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Armed Forces (Centro de Rehabilitación Profesional de la Fuerza Armada, CERPROFA): for disabled veterans (see below)

Coordinating mechanism

Protection Fund’s Consultative Group for mine/ERW survivors;

CONAIPD thematic commissions for general disability coordination

Plan

National Plan of Assistance for Antipersonnel Mine Victims, based on the Cartagena Action Plan, (inactive); the Protection Fund’s Five Year Strategic Plan 2010–2014; National Action Plan for the Implementation of the CRPD

In 2012, there was no active interministerial coordination of victim assistance in El Salvador; the National Plan of Assistance for Antipersonnel Mine Victims, developed in 2010 in line with the Cartagena Action Plan, remained inactive.[15] Organizations such as the national NGO Promoter of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (Promotora de la Organización de Personas con Discapacidad, PODES) and the Salvadoran Association of Disabled Members of the Armed Forces (Asociación Salvadoreña de Lisiados de la Fuerza Armada, ALFAES) found coordination of victim assistance to be inconsistent and ineffective.[16]

The Protection Fund’s Consultative Group held four meeting in 2012 in San Salvador as well as additional regional coordination meetings. Twenty-two national and local associations of persons with disabilities as a result of armed conflict participated in coordination and consultative meetings. The outcomes of these meetings included the development of a proposed reform of the national health law and the planning of events, such as job fairs and entrepreneurial fairs, to promote the livelihood of the fund’s beneficiaries.[17]

UCADFA held weekly meetings with the Fund for Protection, monthly meetings with military units, and periodic meetings with the Ministry of Health, the Network of Survivors, and military hospitals to coordinate assistance for former military survivors, including through CERPROFA.[18]

Following the restructuring of the CONAIPD, which took place during 2011 through to mid-2012, it resumed holding coordination meetings to implement and monitor the National Plan for the Implementation of the CRPD. A principal outcome of coordination meetings was the development of a plan for the economic inclusion of persons with disabilities.[19] In April 2013, CONAIPD presented El Salvador’s initial report on the implementation of the CRPD to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ 9th Session. It presented responses to issues raised by committee members during the committee’s 10th Session in September 2013.[20]

Although it has self-identified as a State Party of the Mine Ban Treaty with a significant number of survivors and need for assistance, El Salvador did not report internationally on its victim assistance activities for 2012. It did not provide any updates on progress or challenges for victim assistance at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2012, at the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2013, or through its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for calendar year 2012.[21]

Survivor inclusion and participation

Mine/ERW survivors and their representative organizations were included in the planning and coordination of the activities of the Protection Fund as members of the Consultative Group and were represented on the board of directors of the Protection Fund.[22]

In 2012 and into 2013, the Network of Survivors participated as part of a coalition of organizations of persons with disabilities and the Office in Defense of Human Rights, which prepared the alternative report reviewing El Salvador’s implementation of the CRPD between 2008 and 2013. The Network’s Director served as a member of the NGO delegation during the presentation of the report before the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in September 2013.[23]

The following organizations included survivors in the implementation of services in such roles as administrators, prosthetists, and peer-to-peer counselors, as well as in running economic inclusion programs: the Protection Fund (with a significant percentage of survivors among its staff), PODES, and the Network of Survivors.[24] Other associations, such as the Salvadoran Association of War Wounded and Disabled (Asociación Salvadoreña de Lisiados y Discapacitados de Guerra, ASALDIG) and ALFAES included survivors and/or persons with disabilities in leadership roles.[25]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities in 2012[26]

Name of organization

Type of organization

Type of activity

Changes in quality/coverage of service in 2012

Protection Fund

Government

Financial support for medical attention, physical rehabilitation, and psychological support; direct implementation of economic inclusion initiatives for mine/ERW survivors and others disabled by war through national and regional offices

Increased number of beneficiaries; inaugurated accessible offices; strengthened microcredit program; increased pensions

UCADFA

Government

Financial support for medical attention, emergency and ongoing care; psychological support, including through self-help groups in military hospital; social inclusion through sports

Maintained level of activities but reduced  amounts of food aid during medical campaigns in line with reduced institutional budget

CERPROFA

Government

Physical rehabilitation and psychological support for veteran survivors

Ongoing

Network of Survivors

National Survivor network

Medical attention; physical rehabilitation, social and economic inclusion, advocacy

Increased geographic coverage to all 14 departments (from 12 in 2011); increased communication capacity

PODES

National NGO

Physical rehabilitation; advocacy

Slight increase in survivors receiving rehabilitation from 2011

ALFAES

National NGO

Psychological support; economic inclusion program; advocacy on behalf of veterans wounded in the war

Decreased geographic coverage due to decreased funding; prosthetic production facility remained closed

ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD)

International organization

Materials and training for the University Don Bosco’s School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, and Rehabilitation Center in Santa Ana Department

Ongoing

Emergency and ongoing medical care

Overall, most survivor associations and service providers observed few changes in the provision of emergency and ongoing medical care. The Protection Fund increased its support for medical care by 285%, indicating that this was a priority for the fund in 2012.[27]

Physical Rehabilitation

In 2012, the Protection Fund completed construction on a new physical rehabilitation facility which began providing services to beneficiaries of the fund in early 2013.[28] While its impact had yet to be felt in 2012, it was expected to improve the quality of rehabilitation for survivors registered with the fund.[29] No other improvements in either the availability or quality of physical rehabilitation were identified during 2012, and ALFAES reported budget cuts that prevented it from re-opening its rehabilitation center that had closed in 2011.[30]

Economic Inclusion

Economic inclusion opportunities for survivors remained similar to those available in 2011, though there were reported to be more opportunities for women survivors in 2012 than in 2011.[31] Through the Protection Fund, survivors continued to have access to microcredit from a national development bank, where the fund negotiated loans at discounted interest rates and the use of war victim pensions as guarantees for loans. In addition to the microcredit program, the Protection Fund provided income-generating grants directly to survivors on a one-time basis, as well as providing home loans and business training. It provided business training courses through its departmental offices in 2012. Pension increases that were introduced in 2011 were sustained through 2012.[32] Some survivors felt that support for economic inclusion through the fund decreased in 2012, though this could not be confirmed by the fund.[33]

The Network of Survivors continued to provide seed support for income-generating activities to individual survivors and survivor cooperatives, while organizing trainings in business administration in which a total of 722 survivors participated. The network held two trade fairs in 2012 to market goods and services produced by survivor-owned businesses.[34] UCADFA reduced its provision of food support to veteran survivors as a result of budget cuts caused by national budgetary austerity measures.[35]

Psychosocial inclusion

The Protection Fund remained the only provider of professional psychological support to survivors, via its national and department offices.[36] In 2012, UCADFA offered peer support to veteran survivors through the Club of Amputees based at the military hospital in San Salvador, a group that started in 2011 with the support from the Network of Survivors.[37] The Network of Survivors extended its peer-to-peer support to all of the country’s 14 departments.[38]

In 2012, with support from UCADFA, the National Amputee Football Team participated in the Amputee Football World Cup that was held in Kaliningrad, Russia.[39]

Laws and Policies

In 2012, discrimination continued to exist in the provision of services to persons with disabilities based on the cause of disability; those injured during or as a result of the war, both veterans and civilians, including mine/ERW survivors, were given preferential treatment through the Protection Fund. In September 2013 the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities noted that “social protection measures primarily protect persons with disabilities as a consequence of armed conflict and that the State [El Salvador] lacks strategies designed to satisfy the right to an adequate standard of living....”[40] At the same meeting of the committee, civil society organizations, including El Salvador’s national survivor network, recommended that the government “create a system of services and benefits for all persons with disabilities, similar to those provided to persons with disabilities as a result of armed conflict, via the Protection Fund…”[41]

In El Salvador, laws prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities and include legal requirements for access to buildings. However, CONAIPD reported a lack of government resources dedicated to the implementation of these laws.[42] ALFAES noted that there were an increasing number of buildings and parks that were accessible for persons with disabilities, though much remained to be done to ensure physical accessibility.[43] There had been less progress towards physical accessibility in rural areas. In order to make its services more accessible, the Protection Fund moved to new offices in 2012 that include ramps, an elevator, Braille signage, and other accessibility features.[44]

El Salvador ratified the CRPD on 14 December 2007.

 



[1] In 2012, the Division of Arms and Explosives (DAE) of the National Police reported six incidents with explosives that resulted in a total of six casualties. However, Monitor analysis did not identify any as victim-activated incidents with ERW. Interview with Jaime Garcia, Officer, Division of Arms and Explosives, National Civilian Police, San Salvador, 19 March 2013.

[2] In 2011, the DAE reported 26 casualties from 17 incidents with explosive items but attributed the majority of the casualties to delinquent acts or explosives abandoned by criminals. Monitor analysis identified two of these casualties as having been caused by explosives abandoned during El Salvador’s armed conflict. Interview with Jaime Garcia, National Civilian Police, San Salvador, 20 April 2012.

[3] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Marlon Mendoza, General Manager, Protection Fund, 4 May 2012.

[4] Ibid.; and interview with Jaime Garcia, National Civilian Police, San Salvador, 20 April 2012.. This figure includes casualties from mines and ERW and includes both civilians and combatants.

[5] No new casualties were identified in 2012. The total of 3,159 registered survivors includes the “at least 3,142” survivors registered in the Protection Fund database at the end of 2007, plus the 17 survivors identified in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Statement of El Salvador, Mine Ban Treaty Eighth Meeting of States Parties, Dead Sea, 21 November 2007; interview with Lourdes Barrera de Morales, Executive Director, Council for Integrated Attention for Persons with Disabilities (Consejo Nacional de Atención Integral a las Personas con Discapacidad National, CONAIPD), in Geneva, 26 May 2009; and telephone interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 22 August 2011. In 2011, the Protection Fund registered 37 new mine/ERW casualties, all of whom were survivors.

[6] See previous El Salvador country profiles in the Monitor: www.the-monitor.org.

[7] In El Salvador, all persons injured or killed by mines or ERW are considered to be war victims, even if the incident occurred after the end of the war.

[8] Victims from previous years continued registering in 2012, increasing the total number of beneficiaries.

[9] Registered beneficiaries include both civilians and former combatants injured by armed conflict from all causes, family members of those injured, and family members of those killed by armed conflict. Survivors of landmine/ERW incidents occurring during and after the dates of armed conflict are included, as are their family members, and the families of people killed.

[10] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[11] Email from Jesus Martinez, Director, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013.

[12] Office in Defense of Human Rights (Procuradaria para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos), “Informe Alternativa El Salvador 2008–2013: A cinco años de entrada en vigor de la Convención sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad” (“Alternative Report El Salvador 20082013: Five years from the entry intro force of the Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities”), San Salvador, 23 August 2013, p. 5.

[13] Unit for the Coordination and Support of Disabled Members of the Armed Forces (Unidad de Coordinación y Apoyo a Discapacitados de la Fuerza Armada, UCADFA), Salvadoran Association of Disabled Members of the Armed Forces (Asociación Salvadoreña de Lisiados de la Fuerza Armada, ALFAES), Salvadoran Association of Disabled Members of the Armed Forces (Asociación Salvadoreña de Lisiados de la Fuerza Armada, ALFAES), Salvadoran Association of War Wounded and Disabled (Asociación Salvadoreña de Lisiados y Discapacitados de Guerra, ASALDIG), and the Network of Survivors and Persons with Disabilities (Fundación Red de Sobrevivientes y Personas con Discapacidad, Network of Survivors) all continued to collect information on a regular basis.

[14] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, “Lista de cuestiones en relación con el informe inicial de El Salvador, adoptada por el Comité en su noveno período de sesiones (15 a 19 de abril de 2013): Respuestas del Gobierno de El Salvador a la lista de cuestiones” (“List of questions in relation to El Salvador’s initial report, adopted by the Committee during its 9th sesión (15 to 19 April 2013): Responses from the government of El Salvador to the list of questions”), CRPD/C/SLV/Q/1/Add.1, 28 August 2013, p. 4.

[15] Interview with Francisco Gonzalez Cortéz, Defense Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 March 2013.

[16] Interviews with Xiomara Morataya, Executive Director, and Freddy Inocente Valladares, Director of Prosthetics Workshop, PODES, 20 March 2013; and Juan Pablo Bonilla, Vice-President, ALFAES, 20 March 2013.

[17] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[18] Interview with Luis Alberto Perez Carbajal, Chief of Unit, UCADFA, 21 March 2013.

[19] Interviews with Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013; and Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[20] UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR), “Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: 10th Session,” 2–13 September 2013.

[21] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2012).

[22] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[23] Emails from Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 20 February 2013 and 14 August 2013.

[24] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013; interview with José Leonidas Argueta, PODES, San Salvador, 12 March 2010; and interview with the staff of the Network of Survivors and Persons with Disabilities, 22 June 2012.

[25] Interviews with Porfirtio Salvador Figueroa, ASALDIG, San Salvador, 14 March 2011; and Juan Pablo Bonilla, ALFAES, San Salvador, 14 March 2011.

[26] Interviews with Xiomara Morataya, and Freddy Inocente Valladares, PODES, 20 March 2013; Juan Pablo Bonilla, ALFAES, 20 March 2013; Luis Alberto Perez Carbajal, UCADFA, 21 March 2013; Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013; and Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013; and ICRC SFD, “Annual Report 2012,” Geneva, May 2013, p. 39.

[27] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Interview with Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013.

[30] Juan Pablo Bonilla, ALFAES, 20 March 2013.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[33] Interview with Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Interview with Luis Alberto Perez Carbajal, UCADFA, 21 March 2013.

[36] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.

[37] Interview with Luis Alberto Perez Carbajal, UCADFA, 21 March 2013.

[38] Interview with Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 8 April 2013.

[39] Interview with Luis Alberto Perez Carbajal, UCADFA, 21 March 2013.

[40] Committee of Persons with Disabilities, “Observaciones finales sobre el informe inicial de El Salvador, aprobadas por el Comité su décimo periodo de sesiones, 2 a 13 de septiembre de 2013” (“Final observations of El Salvador’s initial report, approved by the Committee in its 10th Session, 2–13 September 2013”), CRPD/C/SLV/CO/1, 13 September 2013, p. 10.

[41] “SUMARIO EN RELACIÓN AL INFORME ALTERNATIVO EL SALVADOR 2008–2013 PARA LA LISTA DE RECOMENDACIONES” (“Summary of the Alternative Report of El Salvador 2008–2013 for the List of Recommendations”), provided via email by Jesus Martinez, Network of Survivors, 2 October 2013.

[42] United States Department of State, “2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: El Salvador,” Washington, DC, 17 April 2013.

[43] Juan Pablo Bonilla, ALFAES, 20 March 2013.

[44] Interview with Marlon Mendoza, Protection Fund, 3 April 2013.