Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Lao PDR officials have stated on many occasions that the government made a decision in 2004 to accede but that the country needs time to prepare to meet the treaty’s obligations. In December 2012, Lao PDR reiterated that it would work toward accession but did not provide any timeline.[1]

In July 2011, Lao PDR provided a voluntary Article 7 report. The report notes that landmines may be used, possessed, or traded, if sanctioned. The report states that there has been no survey regarding mined areas and that there are no specific warnings posted for mined areas, only warnings for areas with unexploded ordnance (UXO). It does not provide any information regarding its stockpile but does state that a small quantity of antipersonnel mines is held for training in mine detection.[2] Lao PDR had previously said that its voluntary Article 7 report, when submitted, would allow the international community to “understand the facts and reality on the ground.”[3]

The Lao government has cited the treaty’s mine clearance obligation and deadline under Article 5 as an obstacle to accession. Lao PDR also expressed concern regarding the possible diversion of resources from UXO clearance activities to a focus on antipersonnel mines.[4]

In March 2010, a representative of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) told the Monitor that the only concern the country has regarding accession to the Mine Ban Treaty is implementation of Article 5. He noted that Lao PDR is the country with the worst contamination by explosive remnants of war in the world, and as a State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lao PDR is concerned it may not be able to comply with both conventions’ obligations at the same time due to limited resources.[5]

Lao PDR sent observers to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2012 where it made a statement on its efforts toward accession to the Convention. It also attended the Bangkok Symposium on Enhancing Cooperation & Assistance in June 2013 in Bangkok.

On 3 December 2012, Lao PDR voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 67/32 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. This was the sixth consecutive year it has voted in favor of the annual resolution, after abstaining in all previous years.

Lao PDR is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but not its Amended Protocol II on landmines.

Use, stockpiling, production, and transfer

In 2008, Lao PDR acknowledged that it has used mines in the past “to protect its borders.” It also said that the government does not export antipersonnel mines although it holds a small stockpile.[6] Lao PDR’s voluntary Article 7 report states that it has not used antipersonnel mines for more than two decades and that the country has no production facilities.[7]

 

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 18 March 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the entry into force of the convention on 1 August 2010.

Lao PDR has cited existing laws and decrees under national implementation measures in its Article 7 reports, but new legislation is being considered.[1] In April 2014, Lao PDR confirmed that it intends to “commence the development of national legislation that covers our remaining legislative obligations under the Convention” in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and in consultation with relevant agencies.[2] In September 2013, Lao PDR informed States Parties that it intends to “establish laws which adequately and fully reflect the high standards achieved in this convention” and urged all states to undertake similar national implementation measures.[3] Lao PDR previously indicated that the relevant sections of the penal code might be amended to reflect its obligations under the convention.[4]

Lao PDR submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 25 January 2011 and has provided annual updates ever since, including on 30 April 2014.[5]

As the most heavily contaminated country in the world in terms of cluster munition remnants, Lao PDR’s support was a crucial element in the success of the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6] Lao PDR participated extensively in the Oslo Process and advocated strongly against proposals to weaken the treaty text.[7]

Lao PDR has continued to play a leadership role in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. Lao PDR hosted the hosting the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane in November 2010. It participated in the Meetings of States Parties held in 2011, 2012, and the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, where it made several statements including on national implementation measures, transparency, international cooperation and assistance, universalization, clearance, and victim assistance. In April 2014, Lao PDR hosted a visit by Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wylbur C. Simuusa, who visited in his capacity as President of the Fourth Meeting of States Parties.[8]

Lao PDR has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014, where it spoke on matters including clearance, victim assistance, and international cooperation and assistance.

Since 2012, Lao PDR has served as the convention’s co-coordinator on clearance and risk reduction education.

Lao PDR has undertaken many efforts to promote the universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and in September 2013 encouraged all States Parties to “work harder to persuade the rest of the world community that cluster munitions are no longer acceptable.”[9] In October 2013, Lao PDR called for the universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in its statement to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in 2004, as it had done in previous years.[10]

In April 2013, Lao PDR expressed deep concern at Syria’s use of cluster munitions, which it condemned.[11]

Lao PDR is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Interpretive issues

Lao PDR has expressed its views on several important matters related to interpretation and implementation of the convention. In June 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor, “With regard to your question on relations with states not party to this convention, we are aware of the different interpretations of the Article 21. For us it is clear that we strongly support the full prohibition of cluster munitions, including those activities during the joint military operations, transiting, foreign stockpiling and investment in the production of cluster munitions.”[12]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its Article 7 report, Lao PDR declared that it “has no stockpiles” of cluster munitions and indicated that it is not retaining any cluster munitions for training and research.[13] Lao PDR also declared that it had no production facilities to decommission.[14] Lao PDR has stated that it has never used or transferred cluster munitions.[15]

 

Contamination and Impact

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) experienced the heaviest aerial bombardments in history during the Indochina War of the 1960s and 1970s which left it with the world’s worst contamination from unexploded submunitions in addition to extensive contamination by other explosive remnants of war (ERW), including air-dropped and ground-fired unexploded ordnance (UXO) as well as antivehicle and antipersonnel mines.

Lao PDR continues to state that cluster munitions contaminate approximately 8,470km² and overall contamination by UXO covers up to 87,000km² (around 35% of the Laotian territory).[1] Such estimates, however, are based on bomb targeting data that clearance operators have found bears little relation to actual contamination on the ground. The National Regulatory Authority (NRA) reports that 14 of Lao PDR’s 17 provinces and a quarter of all villages are contaminated by UXO,[2] but insufficient survey has been conducted to provide a credible estimate of the total contaminated area in the country or priority development areas.

Cluster munition remnants

The United States (US) dropped more than two million tons (1.8 billion kg) of bombs between 1964 and 1973,[3] including more than 270 million submunitions (known locally as “bombies”). Lao PDR has reported 623,070 unexploded submunitions were destroyed between 1996 and the end of July 2013,[4] but there is no reliable estimate of the extent of contamination remaining.

Clearance teams have found 29 types of submunition, including most commonly BLU-26, BLU-24/66 and BLU-63.[5] Unexploded submunitions accounted for close to half (49%) of all items cleared in 2013.[6] UXO Lao, Lao PDR’s largest clearance operator, reported in 2011 that during 15 years of operations, submunitions had accounted for 49% of all items cleared.[7]

The NRA identifies submunitions as the most common form of remaining ERW contamination and responsible for close to 30% of all incidents.[8] Submunitions are also said to be the type of ERW most feared by the population.[9] UNDP has reported that as a result of submunition contamination “economic opportunities in tourism, hydroelectric power, mining, forestry, and many other areas of activity considered main engines of growth for Lao PDR are restricted, complicated and made more expensive.”[10] The extent of their impact has given rise to calls for a survey and clearance strategy that gives priority to tackling cluster munition remnants.[11]

Other explosive remnants of war

Clearance operators have reported the presence of at least 186 types of munitions in Lao PDR but the extent of residual contamination from other ERW is not known.[12] These reportedly range from 20lb fragmentation bombs to 2,000lb general-purpose bombs and sometimes bigger items.[13] Other major causes of incidents are artillery shells, grenades, mortars, rockets, and air-dropped bombs.[14]

Mines

All sides in the war laid antipersonnel mines, particularly along borders and around military bases and airfields. A 1997 Handicap International (HI) survey found mines in all 15 provinces it surveyed, contaminating 214 villages,[15] and clearance operators have estimated Lao PDR may have 1,000 mined areas.[16] The remote location of many of these areas means that mines had little impact, are not a clearance priority, and made up only 0.3% of the more than 82,000 items of ERW cleared by operators in 2013.[17] The NRA, however, has stated that “with a steady expansion of land use ‘mined areas’ will become areas for growing concern.”[18]

Mine Action Program

The NRA, created by government decree in 2004 and active since mid-2006, has an interministerial board chaired by the deputy prime minister and composed of representatives from 11 government ministries.[19] Until 2011, the NRA came under the supervision of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. A decree issued in June 2011 appointed a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, responsible for rural development and poverty reduction, as Vice-Chair of the Board together with the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs.[20] A further decree in November 2011 appointed Deputy Prime Minister Asang Laoly as President of the NRA board.[21] In November 2012, Bounheuang Douangphachanh, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and chairman of the National Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, was appointed chairman of the NRA Board.[22]

The NRA’s structure and role was set out in an “agreement” released in November 2012 defining it as the “secretariat for the Party Politburo and the Lao government for the overall management and consideration of policy matters, planning, projects and coordination of the implementation of the Lao PDR National Strategy for the UXO sector for the entire country.”[23] Its role includes setting policy, coordinating and regulating the sector, accrediting operators, setting standards, and conducting quality management. It also has the mandate to serve as the technical focal point for matters relating to international weapons treaties.[24]

The NRA has four sections: Administration and Finance, Planning and Cooperation, Quality and Standards, and Operations and Information. This includes a single quality management team. UNDP has supported a technical advisor as well as a program and finance advisor. Sterling International LLC, funded by the US Department of State, provided a technical advisor supporting quality management and operations at the NRA, a second advisor supporting national operator UXO Lao, and a third advisor providing support to both organizations as required.[25]

The army set up a humanitarian demining unit of 15 personnel in February 2012 in line with a government directive to develop a humanitarian mine action capacity. NRA chairman Bounheuang Douangphachanh said several times this number would be trained in future years. The unit received explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training at the UXO Lao training center funded by the US Department of State. The NRA said it would receive accreditation and operate subject to NRA quality assurance; however, the team has since stood down.[26]

Strategic planning

Lao PDR embarked in 2010 on “Safe Path Forward 2” (SPF), a plan for 2010−2020, a revised version of which was approved by the government on 22 June 2012. The strategy identified six general goals, including reducing the number of casualties each year from 300 to less than 75[27] and releasing of an average of 200km² a year—more than triple the 2013 rate of clearance and land release. It called for release of priority land through data analysis, general survey, technical survey, roving response, “and/or, finally, full clearance.”[28]

The government has also set priorities that move UXO clearance from a humanitarian-oriented program to a development-oriented program more closely tied to government socio-economic development plans. In 2010, the government adopted UXO clearance as a ninth Millennium Development Goal, targeting removal of all UXO from priority agricultural land by 2020.[29] Announcement 93, published by the government in November 2012, stated all provincial and district development projects affected by UXO must undergo survey and clearance before implementation and must also allocate funding to cover the cost.[30] The government has identified 64 priority areas planned to become small rural townships, 167 focal sites to consolidate and “stabilize” remote rural communities, and more than 1,680 priority projects.[31]

By mid-2014, however, there was little clarity how these initiatives will be put into practice.

The NRA consulted with provincial and district authorities in 2013 about how this announcement could be implemented. By June 2014 it had opened six provincial offices attached to offices of the National Council for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, and it planned to open three more before the end of 2014 to facilitate coordination in identifying priority areas and tasks.[32] In 2013, the NRA also started drafting a new multi-year workplan, which it hoped to present by the end of the year, intended to align the UXO clearance sector with broader development goals. Lao PDR told the April 2014 Standing Committee meetings it was still preparing the work plan.[33]

Land Release

Operators cleared a total of 64.86km² in 2013, nearly 20% more than the previous year, largely a result of a near doubling of the area released by commercial companies. The number of accredited commercial operators increased from seven to 11 in 2013, accounting for just under half the amount of land cleared in 2013 but for only 3% of total items destroyed.[34]

In contrast, the amount of land released by NGOs fell by 14% in 2013 but the number of items they destroyed still increased, an outcome that may reflect a greater emphasis on survey and a shift from request-based to evidence-based clearance. Operators have also focused clearance on cluster munition strikes and tackling other UXO through roving tasks, which destroyed 49% more UXO in 2013 than the previous year.[35]

Five-year summary of clearance

Survey in 2013

The NRA has identified survey as a sector priority since 2011, but as of mid-2014 had not yet approved a survey methodology or procedures. The NRA had planned in 2011 to conduct a District Focused Approach non-technical survey that would complete survey of the 41 most contaminated districts in 2013. The NRA halted that approach in 2012, concluding it “didn’t answer all the questions we wanted to know.”[36] By mid-2014 it was still seeking to balance a cautious official approach to risk management with the growing concern of operators and the donors that fund them, to focus on survey and deploy clearance assets only on defined hazards.

NRA discussions with operators in 2013 and the first half of 2014 were held up by issues including the criteria for releasing land by non-technical survey and the level of evidence required to deploy teams for more time-consuming technical survey. A NRA draft document on survey procedures circulated in June 2014 called for full technical survey of uninhabited areas.[37] By the end of June 2014, the NRA expected to reach a consensus on survey methodology within a matter of weeks, paving the way for a pilot survey not later than August involving representatives of the NRA, UXO Lao, and all NGOs to be conducted in three areas of high-, medium-, and low-density contamination.[38]

NPA has continued conducting the Cluster Munitions Remnants Survey, described as a form of quick technical survey, which it started in 2011. Working in three southern provinces of Saravane, Sekong, and Attapeu with 15 teams trained for survey and EOD and 20 non-technical survey teams, NPA surveyed a total of 66.5km² in 2013, of which 38.68km² was confirmed as hazardous area and 28.55km² was found to have no contamination. In the process, NPA cleared more submunitions through survey than some operators did through clearance, destroying a total of 11,617 submunition remnants (9,729 in the course of survey) and 1,093 other UXO items.[39] After three years of testing and refining, the survey approach is broadly endorsed by other international NGOs but the NRA had not endorsed it as a national standard.[40]

Battle area and roving clearance in 2013

Area clearance reported by UXO Lao, the biggest operator working in nine provinces, inched up by 9% in 2013, roughly the same rate of increase it reports in most years, but it also recorded bigger increases of around 21% in submunitions and other UXO destroyed in the course of area clearance operations. In line with the government priorities, UXO Lao is shifting its operating focus from tackling local clearance requests to larger, more development-linked tasks, although tasking and work plans vary widely from province to province.[41]

In 2013, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) worked with around 300 operations staff in the northern provinces of Xieng Khouang and Khamouane, focusing on survey and clearing about a quarter of the area released the previous year but also sharply reducing the ratio of land cleared to items destroyed.[42] The Solidarity Service International (SODI), funded by Germany and working in the north in Kamkheut district of Bolikhamxay province with 71 staff, similarly put more emphasis on survey and converted a battle area clearance team to survey in September 2013. APOPO took over management of SODI teams in Lao PDR in 2014 with a commitment of continued German funding until March 2015. It planned to focus on developing survey and data analysis, reporting a sharp fall in the average area cleared per item destroyed in the first three months of 2014. It also planned to work with provincial authorities on building local capacity for planning and prioritizing. However, government delays in approving a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) prompted German authorities to end its funding at the end of August 2014, leaving the future of the program in doubt.[43]

In southern Lao PDR, where NPA and HI already work, HALO Trust started operation in 2013 in two eastern districts of Savannakhet province with close to 100 operating staff funded by the US. In 2013, teams surveyed 4.47km², identifying 15 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) covering a total of 1.03km². HALO expected staff numbers to rise to over 200 with two-year funding awarded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in 2014.[44]

Much of the increase in area clearance in 2013 was accounted for by local commercial companies working on a range of infrastructure and commercial tasks, but their contribution to tackling contamination as measured by items cleared was small (less than 4% of submunitions destroyed in 2013) and the degree to which they will bring capacity and resources to bear on development priorities remains uncertain. International commercial operators continued to work mainly on tasks linked to mining ventures. BACTEC (Battle Area Clearance, Training, Equipment and Consultancy) was invited by DFID to bid for funding in 2014 but was unable to submit a proposal after the NRA declined to endorse it.[45] Meanwhile, local media reported a Malaysian company, Giant Consolidated, as saying EOD teams were “working daily” on the route of a planned $5 billion, 220-kilometer railway linking Savannakhet and the Vietnam border and had already cleared significant amounts of UXO, but the NRA had no information on which operators were active in the project.[46] 

Battle area clearance in 2013[47]

Roving clearance operations 2013[48]

Support for EOD

Funding for the UXO sector in 2013 totaled US$41 million, up from $30.3 million the previous year, helped by a rise in US support from $6 million to $9 million. The US has pledged a further increase in its support to $12 million in 2015.[50] The government reported contributing $4.9 million to UXO sector funding in 2013, however this included $4.7 million in tax exemptions.[51]

 

Summary action points based on 2013 findings

·         Intensify efforts to improve access to rehabilitation services in remote and rural areas, including allocating resources and ensuring that transport is available.

·         Coordinate for the rapid implementation of recently adopted legislation as well as for existing policies and planning that could hasten developments in the availability and accessibility of services.

·         Integrate responsibility for the allocation of resources for services, referral, and outreach—including transport and accommodation—into government budgets.

·         Structure state support for peer-to-peer counseling and survivor-driven economic indicatives.

Victim assistance commitments

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is responsible for significant numbers of cluster munition victims and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW), as well as landmine survivors, who are in need. Lao PDR has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol V and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

Lao PDR reported 42 ERW and cluster munition casualties for 2013. The majority of casualties were children 27 (21 boys and six girls), among the 15 adult casualties there were 13 men and two women.[1]

The casualty total for 2013 represented a continuing reduction in annual mine/ERW casualties from 56 casualties for 2012, 99 casualties recorded for 2011 and 117 casualties for 2010.[2]

By the end of 2012, the National Regulatory Authority for the Unexploded Ordnance/Mine Action Sector in the Lao PDR (NRA) had identified at least 50,525 mine/ERW (including unexploded submunitions) casualties, including 29,506 people killed and 21,019 injured since 1964. The first phase of a nationwide casualty survey recording retrospective data was completed in 2008. It identified 50,136 mine/ERW casualties; of these, ERW caused the most casualties, followed by landmines and then unexploded submunitions.[3] The NRA reported 702 mine/unexploded ordinance (UXO) victims from 2008 to 2013, of which 41% were children.[4]

Cluster munition casualties

Unexploded submunitions were reported to have caused 7,591 casualties in the period 1964–2013.[5]

Victim Assistance

Lao PDR has estimated that there are some 15,000 mine/ERW survivors still living, including approximately 2,500 survivors of unexploded submunitions.[6]

Victim assistance since 1999[7]

The assistance provided to survivors in Lao PDR remained inadequate throughout the period.[8] Mine/ERW survivors represent a significant proportion of persons with disabilities in Lao PDR. Most survivors come from the poorer remote areas, belong to ethnic minorities, and are disproportionately disadvantaged by the existing limitations in the provision of services. In Lao PDR, financial constraints are the main barrier to accessing healthcare. Emergency medical care throughout Lao PDR remained inadequate to meet survivors’ needs for most of the period. However, progress was made with the development of a system of village health volunteers, in addition to an Asian Development Bank project with the Ministry of Health that improved primary health care services in northern provinces by 2008. More recently, World Education and the Ministry of Health improved the availability of healthcare to survivors significantly.[9]

Physical rehabilitation services, run by the government in association with the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE), showed improvement. With a new outreach program introduced in 2010, they were better able to reach survivors in rural areas.

There was only limited psychosocial support for mine/ERW survivors; however, peer support increased marginally from 2010. Social and economic reintegration programs for mine/ERW survivors, provided by NGOs, remained limited but had increased since 2009. Regulations protecting persons with disabilities from discrimination and requiring accessible buildings either did not have the force of law or were extremely slow to be adopted.

Victim assistance in 2013

Lao PDR reported that it still has “a long way to go to provide support to survivors and their families. Beyond meeting their immediate emergency medical needs, very few survivors receive adequate physical, psychological, or economic support.”[10] Survivors lacked access to quality medical care and professional health workers in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and psychological support. Training in emergency medical attention and first aid in 2013 improved the availability of local emergency care.

Assessing victim assistance needs

The NRA Survivor Tracking System, an ongoing system for collecting data on new casualties, was designed to provide an ongoing survey of the survivors’ needs. In 2013 more than 10,000 individual forms had been received by the NRA. Data are entered into the IMSMA database for analysis. The data was planned to be shared with stakeholders including civil society organizations, for use in the preparation of work plans and funding requests relevant to addressing the needs of survivors.[11]

Association for Aid and Relief Japan collected information on 29 ERW survivors.[12] World Education, the Quality of Life Association (QLA) in Xieng Khouang province, and the Department of Health interviewed 44 ERW survivors after their discharge from hospital in order to provide follow-up support.[13] Handicap International (HI) conducted participatory rural appraisals in 40 villages of rural districts of Savannaket province, which identified of 626 persons with disabilities, including 81 ERW survivors.[14]

Victim assistance coordination in 2013

Regular meetings of the TWGVA were held in 2013, participants included the NRA, other relevant government agencies, national and international NGOs, and survivors.[15] In March 2013, a new Victim Assistance Strategic Plan was completed. The strategic plan addresses seven pillars of victim assistance: data collection; medical care; physical rehabilitation; psychological support and social inclusion; economic rehabilitation and education; legislation and policy; and coordination.[16] The NRA Victim Assistance Strategy received final approval from the NRA Board in February 2014.[17]

Lao PDR reported that once the victim assistance strategy is adopted the focus of coordination efforts will shift to defining shared responsibilities with the disability sector, identifying gaps in resources, and developing a disability framework that is inclusive of cluster munition victims and other survivors of ERW.[18]  In this regard, the Victim Assistance Strategy authorizes the NRA to support the National Committee for Disabled and Elderly People (NCDE) to:

·         develop a sector-wide strategy for persons with disabilities including ERW survivors;

·         cooperate with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare to ensure adequate vocational and other training is provided; and

·         cooperate with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the physical and psychological needs of cluster munition victims and other survivors are more adequately met.[19]

Victim assistance is one of the three main components of the NRA strategy entitled “Safe Path Forward II 2011–2020.”[20] Two of the six strategic objectives relate to victim assistance, including: reduce the number of UXO casualties from 300 to less than 75 per year; and ensure that the medical and rehabilitation needs of all UXO survivors are met in line with treaty obligations. The latter was assigned a series of actions that began to be implemented in 2012, including setting up and maintaining a Lao Victim Information System (LVIS), strengthening physical rehabilitation services, providing emergency medical response at the village level, and developing an effective rural transfer/ambulance system to medical facilities.[21] The strategy and its victim assistance component were included in Lao PDR’s Millennium Development Goals Compact of 2010.[22] A key indicator for progress under these Millennium Development Goals includes “the number of survivors receiving proper assistance.”[23]

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare holds primary responsibility for the needs of, and related services to, persons with disabilities through the National Committee for Disabled People and Elderly (NCDE), previously the National Committee for Disabled People, NCDP. The title and responsibilities changed slightly in September 2013.[24]. . Due to the large number of mine/ERW survivors with disabilities in Lao PDR, the Ministry of Health also worked extensively on victim assistance and rehabilitation in coordination with international NGOs. The NRA acknowledged the need for a strong national disability framework that is inclusive of victim assistance.[25]

Lao PDR reported on victim assistance in 2013 in its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report, made statements on victim assistance at the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Lusaka in September 2013 and also at the Parties Convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2014 and the Meeting of States San Jose in September2014.[26]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

Survivors, persons with disabilities and their representative organizations participated in TWGVA meetings and in the implementation of services. Representatives of the Lao Disabled People Association, Lao Ban Advocates, Lao Disabled Women’s Development Center and Quality of life Association actively participated in consultative processes and special events including annual review meetings and ERW sector-wide working group meetings.[27]

Lao PDR has not included a survivor on its delegation at the Convention on Cluster Munitions Meetings of States Parties or intersessional meetings.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[28]

Emergency and continuing medical care

There was a continuing lack of access to health services in services in Lao PDR. The health care system remained underdeveloped and under-funded; health workers had inadequate skill levels. This directly contributed to shortfalls in the quality of services across the health system.[29]

The availability of emergency care and continuing medical care increased in 2013. World Education and QLA supported survivors with direct funding of services for individual survivors by administering the United States (US) financed War Victims Medical Fund. World Education, Association for Aid and Relief Japan and Catholic Relief Services provided first aid training for healthcare workers and village health volunteers. In 2013, the NRA, Ministry of Health, international NGOs and organizations that have provided training for village health volunteers in the past, met and started discussions on developing the first National First Aid Curriculum.[30]

Physical rehabilitation including prosthetics

Rehabilitation services continued to be provided by COPE on a similar scale to the previous year, however there was a focus to local capacity building with slightly increased outreach services. Financial and technical support continued for the five government-managed rehabilitation centers in the country as did the “COPE Connect,” its outreach and community awareness raising project. COPE reported that prosthetic devices were distributed to 845 people. Out of this number, 233 patients were ERW accident survivors and of those, 10% were new patients.[31]

COPE covered all the necessary costs for those receiving treatment. However many survivors were not aware of, or unable to reach, the available services. COPE continued “COPE Connect,” its outreach and community awareness raising. In 2013, COPE Connect teams visited 22 districts in 5 provinces, all together visiting 71 districts of 11 provinces since the project started in 2009. It established networks with provincial health departments, district health offices, district hospitals, and village and community health workers, and trained local professionals in identification and referral. Clinical assessment teams also travelled to remote and rural areas and referred people with disabilities to appropriate services.[32]

Production decreased at the wheelchair and tricycle workshop at the government-managed Centre for Medical Rehabilitation in 2013 compared to 2012.[33]

Monitoring visits and assessments of the quality of services at three government-managed prosthetic and rehabilitation centers (Vientiane, Xieng Khuang, and Pakse) were conducted by the ICRC SFD in 2013 finding improved quality compared to previous years. ICRC SFD continued to support the development of local capacity within the national rehabilitation service through training programs. It also provided for the costs of prostheses fitting form destitute persons with disabilities, most from ERW contaminated areas and minority ethnic areas[34]

Economic and social inclusion and psychological support

Psychological support was generally not available to survivors. QLA provided peer support in conjunction with other project activities in Xieng Khouang province. Volunteers for the HI Ban Advocates Project also extended their provision of peer support for survivors.[35]

Laws and policies

The decree on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which had been prepared at the beginning of 2008, was submitted to the Ministry of Justice in July 2012 and passed to the Cabinet in November 2012, was finally approved and adopted on 18 April 2014. The Decree on Persons with Disabilities (Decree No. 137) was adopted alongside the Decree on the Organization of Operation of National Committee for Disabled People and the Elderly (Decree No. 232) of Lao PDR, thereby establishing a mechanism for coordination of implementation.[36]

Regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and the Lao National Commission for Persons with Disabilities protect persons with disabilities against discrimination; however, the regulations lacked the force of law. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare established regulations regarding physical accessibility, and some ramps were built in Vientiane. Legislation adopted in 2009 requires that the construction of buildings, roads, and public places provide facilities for persons with disabilities. The law does not mandate accessibility to buildings built before its enactment. Some progress was made on physical accessibility; however, a lack of resources for infrastructure slowed the retrofitting of most buildings and limited government staffing prevented effective implementation.[37]

Lao PDR ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 25 September 2009.

 

In 2012, 12 donors contributed more than US$41.2 million to support mine action in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), compared to 12 donors and $21.5 million in 2011. The $20 million rise in funding is largely the result of increases of $15 million from Japan, $4 million from the United States (US), and a multi-year €4.6 million/$5.9 million contribution from the European Union (EU). The contribution from Japan included ¥886 million/$11 million to the Lao PDR government for equipment.[1]

Australia, the EU, Japan, Norway, and the US together provided 86% of all international funding in 2012. Of the $41.2 million, $1 million went towards victim assistance and $1.35 million supported risk education.

The purpose of the EU mine action program is to support the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) agenda of Lao PDR focusing on the newly defined local MDG objective to reduce the long-term negative impact of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on development in rural communities. The EU program issued its first call for proposals in September 2012 for €2.6 million/$3.3 million.[2]

Australia, Finland, and the US provided $1.28 million for victim assistance to international NGOs and the ICRC. Victim assistance funding included both rehabilitation and livelihood projects.[3]

In 2012, Canada halted its mine action assistance to Lao PDR that began in 1996. According to a Canadian media report, the Lao government has asked Canada to resume its funding, but reportedly has not received a reply.[4]

International contributions: 2012[5]

Summary of international contributions: 2008–2012[6]