Casualties Overview

The Tajikistan Mine Action Center (TMAC) reported 10 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties for 2010. All casualties were male; six were civilians (five boys; one man) and one casualty was military personnel on duty. In addition, three deminers were injured in three separate accidents, two were military deminers.[1] The total number of casualties for 2010 was similar to the nine casualties reported for 2009 and represented a continued decrease from the 13 casualties in 2008.[2] No casualties from cluster munition remnants have been reported in Tajikistan since 2007.[3]

TMAC registered 828 mine/ERW casualties (362 killed; 466 injured) for the period from 1992 to the end of 2010.  Of the total known casualties, 236 (29%) were children at the time of the incident (98 children killed; 138 injured) and 88 were women (42 killed; 46 injured).[4]

At least 54 casualties from unexploded submunitions were reported in Tajikistan. Most incidents occurred in the Rasht valley area. The exact timeline of incidents between 1991 and 2007 is not known and the number of casualties was thought to be significantly under-reported because many unexploded submunition incidents were not differentiated from other ERW incidents.[5] In 2010, Tajikistan estimated that there were some 200 cluster munition casualties in total.[6]

Victim Assistance

Assessing victim assistance needs

The total number of known mine/ERW survivors in Tajikistan is 466.[7] The results of the assessment survey conducted in 2008 continued to be used for planning and prioritizing of victim assistance activities.[8]

Victim assistance coordination[9]

The TMAC-led Victim Assistance Coordination Group (Coordination Group) met three times in 2010; meetings were also used to raise awareness on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and to introduce the Cartagena Plan of Action to its members. Participants included the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Population (MLSPP); Ministry of Health, State Enterprise Orthopedic Plant (SEOP)[10]; National Research Institute for Rehabilitation of Disabled People (NRIRDP); National Union of Disabled People (NUDP); Tajikistan Red Crescent Society (TjRCS); NGO Harmony of the World; and mine/ERW survivors.[11]

In March 2010, TMAC, in cooperation with key government and civil society partners (MoLSP, the State Agency of Medical and Social Expertise, and the NUDP), conducted a two-day seminar for the Coordination Group. The seminar addressed issues of comprehensive rehabilitation and clinical and social assessment of mine/ERW survivors and persons with disabilities.[12] Responsibility for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities was shared by the Commission on Fulfillment of International Human Rights, the NUDP, and local and regional governmental structures.[13] Several members of the Coordination Group also had responsibility for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities in Tajikistan more generally.[14]

The new Mine Action Strategic Plan 2010–2015 (MASP) of Tajikistan, which included victim assistance, incorporated the main conclusions and recommendations of the Cartagena Action Plan 2010–2014. TMAC’s attempts to devise realistic time-bound annual planning of victim assistance in line with the MASP plan objectives were hampered by irregular project funding.[15]

Tajikistan provided detailed updated information on all aspects of victim assistance in Form J of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 reporting for 2010 and at the Tenth Meeting of States Parties and the 2011 intersessional Standing Committee meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.[16]

Survivor Inclusion

As in the past years, mine/ERW and cluster munition survivors and representatives from the NUDP participated in victim assistance coordination meetings and training and the development of plans.[17] Tajikistan reported efforts to ensure the full inclusion and participation of survivors and their representative organizations in all victim assistance related activities, including coordination, management, and implementation of services.[18]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities in 2010[19]

Continued achievements in improving accessibility and effectiveness of most services were reported by Tajikistan for 2010, despite limited and irregular international funding for projects. Many services were only available in the capital; however, the majority of mine/ERW survivors continued to live in remote villages and had difficulty accessing services in Dushanbe because of poor road conditions. For several months of the year access to those villages may be cut off by snow, high water levels, and sometimes landslides.[20]

TMAC’s victim assistance program was reviewed by the Mine Ban Treaty Implementation Support Unit (ISU) in August–September 2010. The review of activities between 2006 and 2010 was highly positive about the program’s results and found that implementation of the program was guided by the survivors’ needs assessment and that partners were well included in activities.[21]

The only prosthetic center in Tajikistan, the SEOP in Dushanbe, provided adequate prosthetic services during 2010. As in the previous year, the SEOP had a waiting list for prostheses. In 2010 the SEOP paid for and imported all raw materials and components from the ICRC and also negotiated an exemption on import tax for all imported materials. The ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) continued to provide some technical assistance.[22]

The SEOP implemented a plan for regular staff salary increases to reduce the problem of technical staff leaving the center.[23] One technician returned to the center due to the pay restructuring; however, retaining staff remained a serious challenge for the center.[24]

A lack of appropriate psychological support and peer-to-peer support remained a significant challenge in 2010. In 2010, TMAC/UNDP supported the establishment of two local survivor-run NGOs, in Dushanbe and in Khujand, Sugd region, to promote peer support, capacity-building of survivors, income-generation opportunities, and rights advocacy. TMAC developed cooperation in psychological support with counterparts in Afghanistan in December 2010.[25] In 2011 the newly formed Tajik survivor NGOs and the Afghan Landmine Survivors’ Organization were in contact regarding the possibilities for cooperation to build peer support capacity.[26]

As part of the Coordination Group training in 2010, a handbook on medical and social expertise was developed and distributed to members.[27]

In 2010, the NUDP reported that only some 5% of people with disabilities in Tajikistan were employed, mostly because employers were unwilling to hire them. Monthly financial benefits were around US$14 for people registered with the highest levels of disability. In remote areas benefits were irregular and were received only once every three or four months.[28] The victim assistance program review in 2010 found that, in the area of economic inclusion, interventions might be more effective if implemented directly by qualified partners with TMAC support.[29]

A new Law on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities was passed on 29 December 2010.[30] The NUDP noted that the new law represented significant progress in comparison with the 1991 law of the same title. The new law was said to include similar standards to those of the CRPD.[31] The social protection law foresees the establishment of a coordination council on disability issues. These were being formed in 2011.[32]

TMAC secured funding for a victim assistance consultant for four months during 2011 to work with the MoLSP to build its capacity to apply the benefits the new social protection law to victim assistance.[33] Handicap International (HI), which moved its Central Asia regional office to Dushanbe in 2011, also secured funding for a capacity building project for four local disability NGOs, including the NUDP. The project is planned for two years starting in 2011. It focuses on the rights of people with disabilities, including in mine/ERW-affected regions, and may support advocacy initiatives of the newly founded survivors’ organizations among other disabled persons’ organizations.[34] HI and TMAC staff noted that the two projects should cooperate to make the most of the opportunities.[35]

The Disabled Women’s League “Ishtirok” reported that they were not able to advocate effectively for the integration of a gender dimension into the new law as the process of development was not open. Gender disparity is persistent and women with disabilities have less access to basic health services and educational opportunities than men.[36]

Tajikistan’s 2010–2012 Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) contains provisions for improvements in areas relevant to mine survivors and other persons with disabilities, including: the quality of healthcare services, the pension system, the quality of prosthetic and orthopedic devices, access to social institutions, training of prosthetic/orthotic technicians, and access to vocational training for vulnerable groups.[37]

The 1991 Law on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities and related legislation required that government buildings, schools, hospitals, and transportation be accessible to persons with disabilities, but these provisions were not enforced.[38] Most buildings in Tajikistan are not physically accessible.[39] The NUDP observed that extensive construction developments underway in Dushanbe did not take into account the needs of persons with disabilities.[40] In 2010, the Tajik Committee on Architecture announced plans to improve construction projects to address accessibility for persons with disabilities.[41]

The December 2010 Law on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities guarantees the physical accessibility of infrastructure for social life and to public transportation. Any planning, construction or reconstruction that does not follow the law is prohibited and penalties can be applied.[42] However in early 2011 no relevant accessibility standards existed which could be used to guide or monitor the implementation of the law.[43]

Tajikistan had not signed the CRPD as of June 2011.