Summary Findings

·         A national victim survey by the ICRC, used as a basis for micro-grant initiatives, improved the economic inclusion of survivors

·         The program for victim assistance run by the Tajikistan Mine Action Center (TMAC) became a Disability Support Unit, recognizing a broadening of its mandate and reinforcing the understanding that victim assistance is inclusive of other persons with disabilities

·         Due to a staffing shortage, the quality of physical rehabilitation services required improvements through training and restructuring

·         Harnessing sustainable financial resources for victim assistance was the major constraint to full implementation of annual planning

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Tajikistan is responsible for a significant number of survivors of landmines, cluster munitions, and explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. Tajikistan has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

TMAC recorded 12 mine/ERW casualties for 2012. Seven casualties were civilian; most civilian casualties (five) were children (four boys and one girl); there was also one woman and one man injured. There were three casualties among deminers (all were injured), and two military border guards were killed.[1]

TMAC reported six casualties for 2011; including three casualties among deminers.[2]

TMAC registered 846 mine/ERW casualties (368 killed; 478 injured) for the period from 1992 to the end of 2012. Of the total known casualties, almost 30% were children (101 children were killed and another 142 injured) and 88 were women.[3]

Cluster munition casualties

At least 164 casualties from unexploded submunitions were reported in Tajikistan through 2007. Most incidents occurred in the Rasht valley area. The exact timeline of incidents is not known.[4] No casualties from cluster munition remnants have been reported in Tajikistan since 2007.

Victim Assistance

Tajikistan is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW. Tajikistan has made a commitment to ensure victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty. The total number of known mine/ERW survivors in Tajikistan is 478.[5]

Victim assistance since 1999[6]

Since the beginning of Monitor reporting, victim assistance improved in Tajikistan with its inclusion in the national mine action strategy in 2004, the recruitment of the Victim Assistance Officer in 2006, and the subsequent development and implementation of a national victim assistance program through the coordination of the national mine action center. From the beginning of Monitor reporting in 1999 until 2004, there were no dedicated programs assisting mine/ERW survivors in Tajikistan.

A TMAC needs assessment in 2008 identified the needs of the large majority of survivors. The national Victim Assistance Program was adjusted based on these needs.

Improvements in medical care have been reported since 2004 when medication and supply shortages were chronic and most facilities were said to be in poor condition. Particularly in mine/ERW-affected areas, infrastructure remained poor due to under-funding and the mountainous terrain severely hampered access to existing services in the capital.

Between 2005 and 2009, the government gradually took on more responsibility for the State Enterprise Orthopedic Plant (SEOP);[7] it was handed over to full government management by the beginning of 2009. Adequate psychological support was mostly unavailable for survivors through the existing system. In response, the Victim Assistance Program held regular camps to begin to address those needs. Increasingly, economic reintegration projects were carried out and accomplished based on the needs identified in the survivor assessment survey, but the activities were not able to be implemented to the extent planned for most of the period due to funding constraints. The need for sustained funding was highlighted as a key challenge to ensuring that the victim assistance capacity which had been developed continued to benefit survivors.

New disability legislation that was developed to be in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted at the end of 2010.

Victim assistance in 2012

From January 2013 the Tajik Victim Assistance Program was “rebranded” as the Disability Support Unit (DSU) to reinforce the understanding that efforts to assist landmine/ERW survivors are part of broader disability and development frameworks.

The quality of prosthetics services decreased due to the continuing departure of trained staff; and the ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) assisted with planned improvements to the rehabilitation structure.

Assessing victim assistance needs

TMAC maintained a database on mine/ERW casualties in Tajikistan. In 2012, TMAC, in cooperation with the ICRC, started a needs assessment survey which included the collection of new data and clarifying previously stored data. ICRC continued data collection in 2013, having surveyed 140 survivors and family members by May.[8]

Victim assistance coordination[9]

At a workshop in September 2012, members of TMAC’s Inter-ministerial Technical Working Group recommended that TMAC’s program for victim assistance broaden its focus in the period 2013–2015 to be more inclusive of all persons with disabilities. To reflect this change and to reinforce the understanding that efforts to assist mine/ERW survivors should be part of broader disability and development frameworks, from January 2013 the Victim Assistance Program was transformed into the DSU. The DSU operates as a Nationally-Executed UNDP Project.[10]

TMAC, through its Victim Assistance Program, worked in close collaboration with partners to implement the victim assistance plan and to mobilize donor support. TMAC was involved in the monitoring of the annual victim assistance work plan together with Technical Working Group members; the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population (MLSPP); Ministry of Health; State Enterprise Orthopedic Plant; National Research Institute for Rehabilitation of Disabled People; National Union and Society of Disabled People (NUDP); ICRC; Tajikistan Red Crescent Society (TjRCS); Handicap International (HI); Tajikistan Centre to Ban Landmines & Cluster Munitions (TCBL&CM); and mine/ERW survivors’ networks. One of the main obstacles to the implementation of the annual plan was limited funding and resources.[11]

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.[12]

Tajikistan’s Victim Assistance Program, guided by the Cartagena Action Plan, aimed to ensure that all mine survivors have equal access to adequate gender- and age-appropriate victim assistance services as well as legal assistance. In this regard, the Tajikistan National Mine Action Strategic Plan 2010–2015 includes an objective for implementing victim assistance, ensuring the rights of survivors, and advocating for Tajikistan to join the CRPD.[13]

On 31 December 2011, the Coordination Council for Social of Persons with Disabilities (DCC) was formally established with the purpose of coordination of the work of the ministries, government establishments, and civil society organizations for implementation of government policy on the social protection of people with disabilities. The TMAC director is a member of DCC and represented the interests of victim assistance. The DCC is mandated to meet on a quarterly basis. Three meetings were held in 2012 starting in July, and meetings continued into 2013.[14]

Tajikistan provided detailed, updated information on all aspects of victim assistance in reporting at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties and the 2013 intersessional Standing Committee meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.[15] Tajikistan also reported on victim assistance in its Article 7 reporting for calendar year 2012.[16]

Survivor inclusion and participation

Survivors were involved in the provision of victim assistance services by the government in 2012, including through the SEOP, where the majority of employees are persons with disabilities. Survivors and their representative organizations contributed to the preparation of government transparency reports and/or statements to be presented at international meetings and shared input for data collection and presentations. A landmine survivor, the assistant to the Victim Assistance Officer of TMAC, participated in the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in 2012 and in the international technical working group on psychosocial rehabilitation for persons with disabilities, including landmine survivors in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2012.[17]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[18]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

The number of prosthesis produced at the SEOP increased in 2012.[19] However, the quality of services at the center was affected by staffing issues. There had been a gradual deterioration of the quality of services at the SEOP caused by a low level of expertise following the departure of all the formally trained technicians and weak managerial capacity. Of the eight trained technicians initially employed at the SEOP, six had left the center by 2008 and the other two by the beginning of 2012. Although the SEOP had introduced better salaries, staff mostly left for financial reasons. In order to address the loss of expertise, the SFD sponsored two prosthetic and orthotic technicians to attend an upgrade course, provided further on-the-job training, and offered recommendations on physiotherapy and logistics management. Three technicians sponsored for International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) category II training in Vietnam were on the second year syllabus in 2012.[20]

A project review in April 2012 resulted in an SFD decision to post a full-time expatriate to help SEOP reorganize and decentralize its work and to increase the quality of its services. Following the project review, and discussions with SEOP staff and MLSP leadership, the SFD developed a three-year action plan and strategy to address weaknesses in rehabilitation services. The strategy is designed to restore quality standards of SEOP services. It also includes a plan for decentralizing services and equipping the satellite rehabilitation center in Khujand, the second largest city in Tajikistan.[21]

The MLSPP, with support from the European Commission Budgetary Support Programme, covered costs of the SEOP and paid the expenses for transport and accommodation of patients attending the center from remote areas. However, for many people, especially for patients from remote regions in need of regular follow-up visits and renewal of devices, access to treatment remained difficult owing to the centralized provision of services. As in previous years, the SEOP had a long waiting list for prostheses.[22]

Economic and social reintegration

A lack of appropriate economic inclusion opportunities, psychological support, including peer-to-peer support was identified as a significant challenge for 2012.[23] During 2012, approximately three-quarters of mine/ERW survivors and their family members received various socioeconomic support, via mainstreaming of victim assistance programming into the socioeconomic activities of other organizations, agencies, and governmental programs. More than 644 mine survivors and family members received social and economic assistance or had improved access to microfinance.[24]

The ICRC provided micro-grants for economic inclusion activities through its MEI program, to families identified through the mine/ERW survivor survey.[25]

With the support of the ICBL-CMC Survivor Network Project, TCBL&CM provided employment training activities for survivors and family members. Most graduated students found gainful employment following the course.[26]

Psychological assistance

In 2013, TCBL&CM organized peer-to-peer support training for survivors in Rasht, Kurgan-Tube, and Khujand to become peer supporters, funded by UNDP. In 2013, TMAC, in cooperation with TCBL&CM, continued peer support project activities. Several international NGOs were implementing pilot small-scale community-based rehabilitation (CBR) projects. Landmine survivors and other persons with disabilities also participated in the annual Rehabilitation Camp, which included participants from Afghanistan in 2012. TMAC, in cooperation with the Afghan Landmine Survivors Organization (ALSO), conducted a pilot peer-to-peer support project during the camp.[27]

The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (Fondation Suisse de Déminage, FSD), in partnership with TMAC, implemented a victim assistance project with psychosocial training for medical staff. The NGO Psychosocial Support Center was recruited to develop the modules and conduct trainings for doctors and nurses from surgery, trauma, and anesthesia departments of mine affected districts.[28]

Regional cooperation and exchanges between Afghanistan and Tajikistan to build capacity in psychological and peer support continued in 2012.[29]

Laws and policies

Tajikistan’s 2010–2012 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 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.[30]

In 2012, changes to the legal framework relevant to protecting and promoting the rights of survivors were included in newly approved policies on pensions and social welfare.[31] The December 2010 Law on Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, which includes standards similar to those of the CRPD,[32] 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.[33]

In September 2012, TMAC, through the FSD, began implementing a year-long pilot project to introduce physical accessibility solutions and tools in two sites in Dushanbe: a children’s health center and the Dushanbe central mosque. Also in 2012, the building of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population was made accessible to persons with disabilities, as were the national library and some new buildings. Over the past three years, there have been small-scale projects to improve accessibility in some rural areas, mostly led by international organizations.[34]

Advocacy activities for the CRPD intensified in 2012, including training on advocacy strategies, rights of persons with disabilities in the framework of national disability legislation, and international conventions and several advocacy round-table meetings.[35]

Tajikistan had not signed the CRPD as of 1 June 2013.

In April 2013, a recommendation for Tajikistan to ratify CRPD was included in the government’s National Plan of the Republic of Tajikistan to implement the recommendations of the UN member states to the universal periodic review of the Republic of Tajikistan on Human Rights for 2013–2015.[36]