Action points based on Monitor findings

·         Maintain regular national coordination of victim assistance and complete the unified victim database in order to improve implementation of services according to needs.

·         Secure adequate resources for civil society victim assistance activities that fill gaps in government services, including peer support outreach and targeted psychological assistance, while working towards improving government provision of necessary services.

·         Expand psychological services to rural and remote areas and improve accessibility to the existing services in those areas.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Croatia is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Croatia has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol V and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties Overview

Details and trends

One adult male civilian was injured by a mine in Croatia in 2013.[1] One clearance personnel was killed and two were injured by a cluster submunition explosion.[2] In 2012, there were two casualties among deminers and one adult civilian casualty.[3]

The Croatian Mine Action Center (CROMAC) has reported at least 1,978 mine/ERW casualties between 1991 and the end of 2013 (511 killed; 1,436 injured; and 31 unknown).[4]

Cluster munition casualties

In 2013, there were three new submunition casualties in Croatia. Three members of the Demining Battalion of the Engineering Regiment were involved in an accident in September 2011 during clearance of the former ammunition storage site in Pađene that resulted in one deminer being killed and two being wounded; the accident detonated, scattering ordnance including munitions.[5] Between 1993 and 1995, at least 206 casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes in Croatia. Between 1993 and 2013, 35 casualties of unexploded submunitions were reported.[6]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2013, the total number of mine/ERW survivors in Croatia was at least 1,436.

Victim assistance since 1999[7]

Health and social services in Croatia function largely on national capacity and were considered sufficient, with relatively strong medical and rehabilitation infrastructure in the cities and social insurance covering most healthcare costs. However, quality, accessibility, and affordability remained key issues, particularly for physical rehabilitation. Although Croatia has a well-structured health and social welfare system, its services were not always equally available to all survivors.

While some areas of victim assistance improved since 1999, until 2010, when the first coordination group was established, a lack of political will hampered progress on the government’s implementation of victim assistance plans. Since 2006, CROMAC has been responsible for coordinating victim assistance, in cooperation with other government ministries and NGOs. For three years, from October 2007, the local NGO Mine Aid had been requesting support to undertake a survivor needs assessment as part of a larger victim assistance program. As a result of Mine Aid advocacy, a multisectoral project to create a unified casualty database for needs assessment was initiated. The first coordination group was established in 2010 but did not meet throughout 2012 until 2013.

High unemployment among survivors worsened as a result of the global economic slowdown. Psychosocial support remained inadequate because of the general public’s and professionals’ lack of knowledge about this issue and a lack of community involvement. Peer support through NGOs increased from 2008.

Awareness of disability rights slowly improved among survivors and the general public, but existing disability legislation was not consistently implemented. A survivor survey in 2011 found that only 19% of survivors reported living in areas with facilities that provided them with adequate care.[8]

Victim assistance in 2013

In 2013, progress in victim assistance coordination and the development of a unified survivor database restarted, after having stalled in mid 2011. NGOs had to reduce the quantity of services from levels that had already been reduced since 2011, due to financial and capacity constraints. Activities at a new psychological assistance center increased, though overall there was no improvement in the psychological support network through the health system.

Assessing victim assistance needs

There was no new or ongoing needs assessment survey in 2013. The Croatian Registry of Persons with Disabilities maintained a database on people living with disabilities who have been registered using an international classification which indicates that the injury was caused by war or explosives. The Ministry of Family, Veterans, and Intergenerational Solidarity maintains data on injured deminers.[9]

The Ombudsperson for Disabilities reported that the lack of statistical data required for policy planning, allocation of resources, and systematic monitoring of undertaken actions were a serious impediment to addressing violations of the rights of persons with disabilities to education, employment, and independent living.[10]

Victim assistance coordination[11]

In 2013, the Government Office for Mine Action took on the role of co-coordinating the multisectoral group of government and NGO representatives, institutions, and individuals in the National Coordinating Body for Helping Mine and UXO Victims. This coordinating body was to ensure that a functioning victim database be established and data adequately collected. To that end, CROMAC hired a specific staff member to coordinate data collection based in the Government Office for Mine Action as a first step to collecting victim assistance related disability data.[12]

Established in 2010, the National Coordinating Body for Mine and UXO Victims was founded on recommendations from the Cartagena and Vientiane Action Plans, as well as due to obligations from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).[13] In 2013, the National Coordinating Body held two official meetings but did not manage to establish coordination or cooperation with institutions directly responsible for CRPD/disability issues. A number of initiatives and ideas were discussed during the National Coordinating Body meetings in 2013, but the main focus was on a renewed awareness that Croatia needed a unified database on mine/ERW victims.[14] In 2012 the National Coordinating Body did not organize meetings or any other activity; the previous meeting was held in the second half of 2011.[15]

There was no revision of the National Action Plan for Mine and UXO Victims 2010–2014 in 2013, and no specific monitoring of the plan’s actual implementation took place. However, relevant institutions in each of the sectors involved in the plan submitted the obligatory overviews as per usual in their general activities.

Croatia provided detailed reporting on casualty data and government and NGO victim assistance activities in Form J of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2013.[16] Information on victim assistance was reported in Form H of Croatia’s Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report for 2013.[17] Victim assistance activities were also reported in its Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V reporting.[18] Croatia gave updates on victim assistance at the Thirteenth Meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2013.[19]

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

Survivors and their representative organizations equally participated in the two meetings of the National Coordinating Body in 2013, and gave their views and positions on issues discussed.[20]

Due to ongoing financial constraints, survivors were not able to be included as members of the government delegation to international meetings. Survivors also gave suggestions regarding the new law on mine action, primarily through the participation of Mine Aid and KUŽM.[21]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[22]

Emergency and continuing medical care

Basic assistance, from first aid to informing all survivors and their families about their rights, was generally provided through government institutions.[23] The Croatian Institute for Health Insurance is responsible for providing emergency medical aid and continuing medical care, physical and medical rehabilitation, orthopedics, and other assistive devices. Health services are equally available to all insured people regardless of gender, age, or religion. Every doctor in the primary healthcare system is required to provide emergency medical assistance and, if necessary, arrange transport to the hospital. In exceptional cases it is possible, in cooperation with state institutions, to provide a patient with transport by helicopter or ship.[24]

In 2014, the Disability  Ombudswoman reported some of the shortcomings of Croatian special hospitals for inpatient medical rehabilitation, spas, and health resorts, based on visits to hospitals and a survey of hospital management and persons with disabilities. These gaps included a lack of funding for investing in upgrading premises and equipment, lack of personnel for conducting rehabilitation, long waiting lists, and a lack of accommodation capacities covered by insurance. Many institutions were physically inaccessible. Rehabilitation was incomplete due to a lack of rehabilitation interventions, understaffing, and focus on pure medical care while the other elements of rehabilitation such as social, psychological, and peer support remained neglected.[25]

Physical rehabilitation including prosthetics

Following emergency care, an injured survivor has the right to access various appropriate forms of medical care including inpatient rehabilitation, physical therapy in healthcare facilities and in community health centers, or physical therapy in the patient’s home. The Institute for Health Insurance maintains a detailed record of rehabilitation capacity and staff in the 10 most mine/ERW affected counties, including the facilities and physiotherapists providing home-based assistance in each county.[26] Compared to 2012, in 2013 the number of physical medicine and rehabilitation teams doubled in Sisak-Moslavina, increased slightly in Požega-Slavonija, and decreased slightly in Karlovac, Vukovar-Srijem, and Zadar. The number of physiotherapists providing therapy in the home did not change overall.[27]

The Croatian Institute for Health Insurance also covers the costs of “very basic” orthopedic aids for survivors. Survivors often reported that the quality and/or frequency of orthopedic devices that they received were inadequate; no change was noted in 2013.[28]

Economic and social inclusion and psychological support

Croatia reported that the provision of continuing psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration through the social welfare system remained weak in 2013.[29] The Ministry of Family, Veterans, and Intergenerational Solidarity operated centers for psychosocial assistance in all 20 counties of Croatia and the city of Zagreb to assist all persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors and members of casualties’ families. Croatia reported that the centers for psychosocial assistance are often understaffed and underfinanced or without programs to ensure the provision of adequate and timely services.[30] It also was reported that the government centers for psychological support existed only on paper.

Mine Aid continued to provide psychological support and referrals to persons affected by mines and their families in 2013. While Mine Aid continued to work in mine-/cluster-affected areas offering psychosocial and educational support, in 2013 most project participants were indirect victims, such as unemployed people living in affected areas. Mine Aid worked with survivors in cooperation with the M.A.R.E. Center by organizing summer psychosocial workshops. During the workshops, survivors received professional support and provided peer support to others in the group. Mine Aid cooperated with the working team on the new draft Law on demining, collecting and forwarding comments and recommendations of mine survivors.

In May 2013, Mine Aid organized a two-day seminar to present the final results of the project “Empowerment-Synergy-Integration,” financed by the Ministry of Health, and subsequently supported by the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth. The main goal of this seminar was to promote social entrepreneurship with the aim of encouraging self-employment for people with disabilities. The project brought together family members of those injured or killed and people directly affected by mines who experienced trauma due to the consequences of the weapon, including amputation, injury to internal organs, or loss of family members; included in the project were also persons with multiple sclerosis and their families.[31]

During 2013, the M.A.R.E Center offered professional psychosocial support and peer support. The M.A.R.E Center increased the number of workshops that it conducted compared to 2012 and continued operating and implementing new activities including psychosocial rehabilitation of mine survivors, their children, and their families.[32]

KUŽM reduced the quality of its services due to reduced inflow of donations and human capacity. During 2013, KUŽM kept beneficiaries informed of their rights and opportunities, trained three survivors as beekeepers, and purchased hives and agricultural tools for them.[33]

The Ombudsperson for disability reported that gaining employment was an obstacle for persons with disability who received a family pension. Prior to 2013, in order to continue receiving a pension, the law required persons with disabilities to forgo any form of education and employment. Amendments made to the Pension Insurance Act in 2013 by the Ministry of Labour and Pension Insurance created the opportunity for persons with disabilities to maintain a family pension upon finding employment and to regain the right to benefits in case of job loss.[34]

The Croatian Employment Service (CES) in cooperation with the town of Zagreb, the Institute for Disability Assessment and Professional Rehabilitation, and the Institution for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons through Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Ustanova za profesionalnu rehabilitaciju i zapošljavanje osoba s invaliditetom, URIHO) implemented a new model of professional rehabilitation in line with the National Strategy of Equalization of Possibilities for Persons with Disabilities 2007–2015 to improve access to career management and develop new employment models for persons with disabilities. Of those unemployed persons with disabilities who were assessed as “employable” and used URIHO facilities, 45% found jobs on the open labor market. The CES established eight Lifelong Career Guidance Centers (CISOK) in seven Croatian regions for all citizens, including persons with disabilities, mostly based on the cooperation with the education system, the non-governmental sector, and other relevant stakeholders in the field of lifelong learning and vocational guidance.[35]

Laws and policies

As in the past, Croatia reported that it has a highly developed legal framework with over 200 laws and by-laws relating to the rights and status of persons with disabilities, including mine survivors.[36] However, Croatia also continued to report that although survivors’ rights are regulated by numerous laws and regulations, the “on the ground reality” does not always follow the legislation.[37]

The European Commission (EC) has found that the criteria for establishing entitlements for persons with disabilities in Croatia were not applied equally and that “legislation regulating specific rights remained fragmented.” Information was lacking on rights and entitlements in the areas of social welfare, healthcare, and pension insurance.[38] In 2012, the EC found that persons with disabilities continued to face discrimination in the labor market, and in the public sector that employment quotas were not being met. Public awareness of the rights of people with disabilities remained low, especially in rural areas where most mine/ERW survivors live. More attention was also needed to the implementation of regulations ensuring physical accessibility.[39] However, in its final report recognizing Croatia’s preparedness to join the European Union in 2013, the EC did not mention disability rights issues.[40]

Croatia has an Office of the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities with its main role being to promote rights, propose measures, make recommendations, and request reports on the actions taken to enforce the rights of persons with disabilities.[41]

Croatia has strong legislation on building construction that requires the accessible adaptation of buildings for persons with disabilities. However, implementation was problematic because the relevant supervisory bodies did not enforce penalties in cases of violations.[42]

The law on the protection of military and civilian victims of war was changed during 2013 and the right to a pension for victims with low incomes was abolished.[43] According to data from the Croatian Institute for Pension Insurance, in 2013 fewer veterans with disabilities and deminer survivors received pensions. The reason for the decrease was not included in the statistical reporting.[44]

The National Employment Incentive Plan requires all legal entities with at least 20 employees to employ persons with disabilities in appropriate working conditions. State administration bodies as well as legal entities in full or partial ownership of the state are obliged to give priority to persons with disabilities.[45]

A new Act on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities was adopted at the end of 2013. The legislation addressees the following challenges: establishing a uniform definition of persons with disabilities compliant with the definition stated in the CRPD; providing subsidized employment of persons with disabilities; including a quota system for private sector employment; establishing regional vocational rehabilitation centers; and harmonizing legal provisions related to persons with disabilities in different sectors.[46]

Croatia ratified the CRPD on 15 August 2007.