Summary action points based on 2012 findings

·         The survey of survivors’ needs planned for 2013 should be supported to ensure an effective revision of the existing victim assistance action plan.

·         A sustainable funding strategy is needed for the physical rehabilitation sector, which relies on international funding and donations.

·         The availability of healthcare cards for survivors in the Lebanon Mine Action Center (LMAC) casualty database requires review; some survivors have not yet received a card, limiting their access to ongoing health care.

Victim assistance commitments

The Lebanese Republic 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. Lebanon has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2012, LMAC identified nine mine/ERW casualties.[1]

The nine casualties identified in 2012, and the six casualties in 2011, were both a significant decrease from the 24 casualties reported by LMAC in 2010.[2] Annual mine/ERW casualty rates have declined steadily from the 98 casualties in the year 2000, except for a spike in casualties between August and December 2006 immediately following the July 2006 bombing of southern Lebanon.[3]

The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Lebanon recorded from 1975 to December 2012 was 3,683 (903 killed; 2,780 injured). The total number of recorded mine/ERW casualties was reduced following a database review, which removed duplicate entries of survivors.[4]

Cluster munition casualties

As of December 2012, the LMAC data indicated 663 casualties (154 killed; 509 injured) from unexploded submunitions, of which 18% (120) were children at the time of the incident.[5] The Monitor has identified 712 cluster munition casualties for the same time period, including those recorded by LMAC. Little data is available on casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes; only 16 (three people killed; 13 injured) were identified.[6]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 2,780 mine/ERW survivors in Lebanon as of December 2012.[7]

Victim assistance since 1999

Since Monitor reporting began in 1999, the number of national and international actors involved in providing a range of victim assistance services to mine/ERW survivors throughout the country has grown, most especially following the bombing in 2006. Medical care was provided through public health facilities with other victim assistance services made available through national and international organizations dependent on international funding sources. NGO members of the national victim assistance steering committee (approximately 12) implemented programs for physical rehabilitation and for economic and social inclusion, including sports programs and some peer support. Almost no psychological support was available to survivors during this period. Barriers to accessing victim assistance services, particularly for those living in southern Lebanon, included the cost of services, the lack of affordable transportation, and/or a lack of awareness of availability. A decline in funding, which reportedly began in 2008, forced some service providers to reduce their numbers of beneficiaries; however, most reported continuing activities at similar levels despite declining funding.

Since 2001, victim assistance was coordinated through regular meetings of the national victim assistance steering committee hosted by the national mine action center. Throughout most of the period, Lebanon lacked a comprehensive victim assistance plan; coordination mainly consisted of information sharing among service providers. While LMAC was mostly seen to be effective in coordinating victim assistance activities, NGO service providers found that reduced funding affected the quality of coordination and fewer coordination meetings were held. A national victim assistance strategy began being developed for the first time in 2011.

Victim assistance in 2012

Lebanon’s first national victim assistance strategy established targets for comprehensive victim assistance by 2020. An overall ongoing decrease in the availability of victim assistance services was identified in 2012, exacerbated by the crisis in Syria and diversion of healthcare resources to assist incoming refugees from that country. Services available through national NGOs continued to decrease due to a lack of funding.

Assessing victim assistance needs

No needs assessments were reported in 2012. In 2013, the victim assistance steering committee was awaiting the results of the victim assistance survey planned by LMAC, supported by both Austria and South Korea, which was to be finalized by the end of 2013. This survey was intended to help better understand the needs of survivors and for LMAC to revise its action plan to respond to those needs accordingly.[8]

Following Israel’s large-scale use of cluster munitions in Lebanon during 2006, various government agencies and NGOs collected data on the needs of mine/ERW survivors and cluster munition victims, their family members, and on communities impacted by cluster submunitions and other ERW. However, as of 2012, this data had not been consolidated within a single national database.[9]

Victim assistance coordination[10]

LMAC manages and coordinates the implementation of victim assistance in Lebanon, through the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance. The national steering committee includes representatives of the following organizations:

·         The Injured and Victims of War association

·         The Islamic Al Rissala Scouts Association

·         The Islamic Health Council

·         The Landmines Resource Center

·         The Lebanese Association for Health and Social Care

·         The Lebanese Welfare Association for the Handicapped

·         The Ministry of Social Affairs

·         The National Rehabilitation and Development Center

·         Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA)

·         The Philanthropic Association for the Handicapped in Nabatiyeh

·         The Vision Association for Development, Rehabilitation and Care

·         The World Rehabilitation Fund

The committee is responsible for implementing the victim assistance strategy in addition to ensuring coordination between the different stakeholders. In 2012, the committee met infrequently due to the major decrease in funds for victim assistance activities overall. However, in 2013, it was beginning to return to previous levels of activity.[11]

The Ministry of Social Affairs increased its participation in victim assistance coordination. In the 2011 National Social Development Strategy of Lebanon, the ministry committed to “Establishing and implementing the National Program for Cluster-bomb Victims.”[12]

In September 2011, LMAC released the Lebanon Mine Action Strategy 2011–2020, which included a strategic objective on an action plan for victim assistance detailing a commitment to the “full realization of the rights of mine victims guaranteed” where “all victims are provided with medical, social, psychological, and economic support as part of the fulfillment of their full legal rights as stated in the law 220/2000”—and to enhance the access and rights of persons with disabilities. The victim assistance objective was articulated with specific reference to Article 5 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions obligations and “in the spirit of the Mine Ban Treaty… and in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of People with Disability (CRPD).”[13]

The Victim Assistance Strategy was developed with input from governmental and NGO members of the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance, including survivors.[14] The strategy’s main objectives are to ensure that mine/ERW victims have rights-based access to all services and to include victims in socio-economic rehabilitation initiatives. The strategy seeks to achieve these objectives for all victims by 2020.[15] The Victim Assistance Strategy includes a budget for victim assistance activities.[16]

Lebanon provided an update on its progress and challenges in implementing victim assistance at the Third Meeting of States Parties held in Oslo in September 2012, at the Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, and through its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report.[17]

Survivor inclusion and participation

Survivors were included in the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance as representatives of NGO service providers.[18] The majority of victim assistance activities were implemented by local NGOs, some of which had survivors in management positions while many involved survivors in planning activities.[19]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[20]

Health care in Lebanon is among the most expensive in the region. Many people rely on the assistance of the Ministry of Health, because not every citizen can qualify for the National Social Security Fund or afford to have private health insurance.[21]

In 2012, the ICRC funded the renovation of seven emergency medical care stations of the Lebanese Red Cross, supported training sessions for emergency care volunteers all over Lebanon, and carried out an evaluation of its five-year emergency medical services strategy in preparation to the design of a follow-on strategy. The ICRC also supported the maintenance of ambulances  as well as ambulance service centers across Lebanon, mainly in response to the arrival of wounded from Syria as well as violence in Tripoli. It provided medicines and medical material to health facilities, including hospitals, clinics and dispensaries.  From the onset of the crisis in Syria in 2011, the ICRC provided support to the Lebanese Red Cross emergency medical services for the transfer to hospitals of wounded persons crossing into Lebanon.[22] In July 2012, it was reported that Lebanon’s relief agency suspended funding for treatment of wounded Syrians who entered the country, due to rising costs.[23]

Physical rehabilitation remained largely dependent on funding from external donors and national charities.[24] Reduced international funding resulted in a decreased number of survivors benefiting from NGO-implemented physical rehabilitation programs. The prolonged decrease in funding over a four-year period froze many victim assistance operations and activities.[25] In 2012, China donated medical and rehabilitation equipment such as wheelchairs, stretchers, oxygen bottles, and electrocardiographs to LMAC. The equipment was distributed to the members of the National Steering Committee on Victim Assistance in order to assist mine/ERW survivors.[26]

No significant changes were identified in the availability of economic inclusion projects or social support, both of which were very limited compared with the level of need. Psychological support was the least developed area of assistance in Lebanon.

Information campaigns informed victims of their rights and encouraged them to apply for a disability card making them eligible for some free health services. In 2012, further efforts were reported to ensure eligible survivors were provided with a disability card. In 2013, Lebanon was reviewing the eligibility requirements to receive disability cards set by the Ministry of Social Affairs to compare with the characteristics of survivors registered within the LMAC casualty database to find out why some survivors had not received a card.[27]

Discrimination against persons with disabilities is prohibited by law, but continued to exist. The National Disability Law stipulates a 3% quota to hire persons with disabilities for all employers. However, there was no evidence the law was enforced and there was little to no impact. The law required that buildings be made accessible to persons with disabilities, but changes to the building code that would have made the law operable had not been made by the end of 2012.[28]

Lebanon reported increased efforts to implement Law 220/2000 on the rights of persons with disabilities in 2012.[29] The law addresses the rights of persons with disabilities to have access to adequate education, rehabilitation services, employment, medical services, sports, and access to public transport and other facilities. However, it also reported that the law had yet to be comprehensively put into practice, due in part to a lack of sufficient resource allocation within the national budget.[30]

Lebanon signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 14 June 2007.