Action points based on findings

• Improve and systematize casualty data collection.
• Enhance victim assistance coordination and align with disability-rights coordination.
• Adopt the revised National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance.
• Implement the law protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
• Plan and undertake survivor identification and needs assessment.
• Increase services in all areas of victim assistance, particularly physical rehabilitation and employment.
• Improve facilities and professional capacity in the rehabilitation sector.
• Coordinate government investment and support to rehabilitation and emergency care to ensure sustainability.

Victim assistance commitments

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

Chad signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in September 2012, but had not yet ratified as of 26 June 2017.

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Chad is not known, though there were thought to be more than 1,764.[1] Between 1998 and 2013, the National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND) estimated that there were at least 2,834 survivors and family members of people killed by mines/ERW registered in Chad, but recognized that this data was not complete.[2] In 2014, 2015, and 2016, the CND did not report a new estimate, however new survivors were recorded throughout the years and therefore the total number most likely increased.[3]

Victim assistance since 2015

There remained an overall need to establish services and capacities outside the capital N’Djamena, especially in those remote and affected areas. Services for mine/ERW survivors in Chad had long been hampered by intermittent internal conflict and cross-border conflicts, as well as serious under-funding. Data on mine/ERW casualties was not adequate for use; information on the needs of survivors was not available. In 2015 and 2016, the ICRC was providing most of the support to the rehabilitation sector in Chad, but it withdrew its support at the end of 2016. Handicap International was set to follow up and provide support for the physical rehabilitation authorities who had been receiving ICRC assistance.[4] The National Action Plan on Victim Assistance—which was developed with the support of Handicap International (HI)—was extended without implementation or a budget. The plan was revised in 2016 and was pending adoption.[5]

Victim assistance in 2016

To access most services, many survivors still needed to be transferred to N’Djamena, where the existing facilities were located; however, the facilities were few and inadequate in view of the needs. While the exact number of persons with disabilities in need of physical rehabilitation services remained unknown, the two functioning centers—one in the country’s capital and the other in the southern city of Moundou—did not have the capacity to meet needs, in terms of infrastructure and human resources.[6]

Lack of financial support from the social system to cover the cost of treatment continued to mean that services were not free of charge unless covered by the ICRC, which also continued to provide a referral system and local staff training. Legislation addressing persons with disabilities was not adequately enforced, as the application decree for the domestic law protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, signed in 2007, remained pending the president’s signature to render it law, as of the beginning of 2017.[7]

Assessing victim assistance needs

Within the framework of the European Union Project to Support the Demining Sector in Chad (Projet d’Appui au secteur du déminage du Tchad, PADMIN Project), HI started a victim identification and needs assessment survey in the two pilot regions of Borkou and Ouaddaï, in September 2016. The project is set to be completed in October 2018.[8] In 2016, it was reported that HI had trained the CND to collect information on mine victims.[9]

Victim assistance coordination[10]

This first National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance was adopted in May 2012, to be implemented from 2012–2014.[11] Because of a lack of resources for its implementation, little progress had been made towards achieving the objectives set out in the action plan and consequently in 2013, it was decided to extend the timeframe of the plan to 2017.[12] In 2015, further budget cuts prevented any further implementation. HI led a revision of the plan in early 2016. As of March 2017, the revised victim assistance action plan had not yet been approved.[13]

The objectives of the National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance have also been included in the Strategic Mine Action Plan 2013–2017.[14] In 2013, Chad developed and adopted an implementation strategy for the action plan, which includes seven victim assistance objectives.[15]

Unlike 2015, no victim assistance coordination meetings within the PADMIN Project framework were reported in 2016.

In May 2013, the Ministry of Public Health signed a decree creating a working group to specifically address physical rehabilitation needs in Chad, entitled Network of Rehabilitation Actors in Chad (Réseau des acteurs de la réhabilitation au Tchad, RART).[16] Members of this network include representatives of the CND, the Ministry of Social Action, National Solidarity, and the Family (Ministry of Social Welfare), international organizations such as UNICEF and the ICRC, the two rehabilitation centers, specialists, and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs), as well as mine survivors.[17] The network was strengthened throughout 2015 and allowed for the drafting and finalization of a national plan to address physical rehabilitation needs in Chad.[18] At the end of 2016, this plan was still awaiting approval of the Ministry of Health.[19]

The Ministry of Social Welfare was responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, while the Ministry of Public Health was responsible for physical rehabilitation.

Chad did not make a statement to provide updates on progress and challenges for victim assistance at the international meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty or Cluster Munition Convention. In March 2017, Chad submitted its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for calendar year 2016, including form J, in which it provided information on victim assistance activities. As of June 2017, Chad had not yet submitted its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report for calendar year 2016.[20]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

Survivors did not participate as part of their country’s delegation in international meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty or Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities

Emergency and continuing medical care

During 2016, Chad was increasingly impacted by military engagement and unrest in neighboring countries. Occasional incidents of communal violence, banditry, and social unrest over economic/political frustrations persisted. With ICRC support, the Red Cross of Chad strengthened its emergency-response capacities.[21]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

Access to rehabilitation remained difficult for most of those in need in 2016. Rehabilitation services were only available in six of the 23 regions in Chad. Access to rehabilitation was hampered by the lack of financial support from the social system to cover the cost of rehabilitation treatment (to be covered by the patients), the lack of facilities and professionals, and the burden of the cost of transport (when it was available). There was no direct involvement by the government in physical rehabilitation and patients had to pay for services.[22]

Throughout 2016, the ICRC continued to help local actors build their capacity to deliver suitable physical rehabilitation services to persons with disabilites, albeit with limited success as regards CARK in N’Djamena.[23]

CARK in N’Djamena and MNDP in Moundou treated 4,660 persons with disabilities, including 36 mine/ERW survivors in 2016. Children represented 36% and women 21% of the total beneficiaries.[24] Staff at ICRC-supported centers enhanced the quality of their services through training sessions.[25]

Due to increased needs for support to refugees coming into Chad from neighboring countries, the ICRC generally reduced the scale of its victim assistance activities.[26] It continued to help build local capacities and promoted efforts to address physical rehabilitation needs in the country as it prepared to progressively phase out its assistance to the sector. With this in mind, the ICRC encouraged the ministries for health and for social affairs to increase investment in physical rehabilitation services.[27]

In 2016, HI built the capacity of victim assistance and disability actors, including the CND, relevant national authorities, international organizations, and civil society organizations. It also provided support to the national physical rehabilitation sector, and provided advocacy and awareness raising trainings on victim assistance and disability rights. This project was implemented in N’Djamena, and in the provinces of Borkou, Tibesti, and Ouaddaï.[28]

Socio-economic inclusion

The government also operated education, employment, and therapy programs for persons with disabilities.[29] In 2016, HI led a social inclusion and inclusive education project with the NGO COOPI, in the lake region.[30]

HI is set to start a new project in July 2017, which will support inclusive education and economic inclusion activities.[31]

National laws and policies

The law protects the rights of and prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, however, the government did not effectively enforce the law. No legislation or programs exist to ensure access to buildings for persons with disabilities.[32] The application decree for the domestic law number 007 protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, signed in 2007, has remained inoperative, pending the president’s signature to render it law.[33] Efforts were made to translate this law into Arabic in the hope of speeding up its adoption.[34] In 2016, on the ninth anniversary of the signing of law number 007, AEHPT and the National Union of the Associations of the Persons with Disabilities of Chad (Union nationale des associations des personnes handicapées du Tchad, UNAHPT) called for increased accessibility for persons with disabilities through the legislation while noting that persons with disabilities await the implementation of the decree and expect the ratification of the CRPD. DPOs also called for income-generating activities for all persons with disabilities and the opening of the Ngueli road, as well as positive discrimination for employment in the public service for graduates with disabilities.[35] UNAHPT reported that the organization wrote several times to the Minister of Social Action and the Prime Minister to raise these issues, though without a response.[36]