Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan REPORT OF FIRST NATIONAL LANDMINE VICTIM ASSISTANCE WORKSHOP Hosted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs KABUL, AFGHANISTAN 6-8 AUGUST 2006 FIRST NATIONAL LANDMINE VICTIM ASSISTANCE WORKSHOP REPORT Table of Contents Background 3 Workshop Objectives 5 First National Landmine Victim Assistance Workshop 5 Overview of the Key Elements of Landmine Victim Assistance 7 Victim Assistance in Afghanistan 8 Working Groups 8 Closing remarks 9 Workshop Outcomes and Key Recommendations 10 Annexes: Annex A – Extract from Zagreb Progress Report 11 Annex B – Revised extract from Zagreb Progress Report 18 Annex C – Workshop Agenda 28 Annex D – Workshop Participants 30 Annex E – Opening address – H.E. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, 32 Mahmoud Saikal Annex F – Guidelines for Working Group Facilitators 34 Annex G – Afghanistan’s Victim Assistance Plan of Action 2006-2009 35 Annex H – Closing address – H.E. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, 53 Mahmoud Saikal Acknowledgements: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is grateful to UNMACA, UNICEF, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, for the financial support that made the workshop possible, and to Susan Helseth and her team at UNMACA for their efforts in the organization of the workshop. For further information: On the national workshop, contact: Susan Helseth Senior Technical Advisor for Mine Risk Education and Victim Assistance UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan Email: [email protected] On victim assistance in the context of the AP Mine Ban Convention, contact: Sheree Bailey Victim Assistance Specialist Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining Email: [email protected] National Landmine Victim Assistance Workshop Report – 3 Background: Landmine victim assistance is a complex issue. In Afghanistan, the complexities are exacerbated by the paucity or low quality of services within all areas of assistance including health care, social services, education and human rights. Lack of access to emergency services and health facilities in remote areas together with the lack of equipment, medicines, and adequately trained health and rehabilitation personnel, and insufficient levels of funding often prevent mine victims and other people with disabilities from receiving the care and rehabilitation services they need to survive and reintegrate into Afghan society. At the First Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (AP Mine Ban Convention), in Nairobi, Kenya, from 29 November to 3 December 2004, Afghanistan was one of 24 States Parties1 that indicated that they had significant numbers of mine survivors and the “the greatest responsibility to act, but also the greatest needs and expectations for assistance” in providing adequate services for their care, rehabilitation and reintegration.2 As a result, Afghanistan has become “a more focused challenge” for States Parties in the period up to the Second Review Conference in 2009.3 States Parties at the First Review Conference adopted a clear understanding of principles to guide their victim assistance efforts. Four statements are particularly important: victim assistance “does not require the development of new fields or disciplines but rather calls for ensuring that existing health care and social service systems, rehabilitation programmes and legislative and policy frameworks are adequate to meet the needs of all citizens – including landmine victims;” “….the call to assist landmine victims should not lead to victim assistance efforts being undertaken in such a manner as to exclude any person injured or disabled in another manner;” “assistance to landmine victims should be viewed as a part of a country’s overall public health and social services systems and human rights frameworks;” and, “….providing adequate assistance to landmine survivors must be seen in a broader context of development and underdevelopment….”4 The First Review Conference also adopted the ambitious five-year Nairobi Action Plan for the period 2005 to 2009. With respect to victim assistance, the Nairobi Action Plan aims to “enhance the care, rehabilitation and reintegration efforts” through eleven “actions” directed at both mine-affected and non-affected States Parties. The Plan of Action commits mine-affected States Parties, including Afghanistan, to do their utmost to establish and enhance health care services needed to respond to the immediate and ongoing medical needs of mine victims; to increase national physical rehabilitation capacities; to develop capacities to meet the psychological and social support needs of mine victims; to actively support the socio-economic reintegration of mine victims; to ensure that national legal and policy frameworks effectively address the needs and fundamental human rights of mine victims; to 1 Review of the operation of the status of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction: 1999-2004, (Part II of the Final Report of the First Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Nairobi, 29 November – 3 December 2004, APLC/CONF/2004/5, 9 February 2005), p. 33, paragraph 85. Ethiopia’s ratification of Mine Ban Convention on 17 December 2004 increased the number to 24. 2 Ending the suffering caused by anti-personnel landmines: Nairobi Action Plan 2005-2009, (Part III of the Final Report), p. 99, paragraph 5. 3 Review of the operation of the status of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction: 1999-2004, p. 33, paragraph 86. 4 Review of the operation of the status of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction: 1999-2004, pp. 27-28, paragraphs 65-67. National Landmine Victim Assistance Workshop Report – 4 develop or enhance national mine victim data collection capacities; and to ensure that in all victim assistance efforts, emphasis is given to age and gender considerations. Donor States Parties committed to provide external support to assist mine-affected States in the care, rehabilitation and reintegration of mine victims. All States Parties committed to monitoring and promoting progress in achieving the victim assistance goals and ensuring the effective participation of mine victims in the work of the Convention.5 The AP Mine Ban Convention’s Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio- Economic Reintegration (SCVA) has been integral to advancing understanding and identifying the needs in relation to mine victim assistance among the States Parties. In 2005, the SCVA, under the leadership of Nicaragua and Norway, increased its efforts to ensure the successful implementation of the Convention and concrete progress in meeting the needs of landmine victims before the Second Review Conference in 2009. In early 2005, the Co-Chairs developed a questionnaire, in consultation with the Convention’s Implementation Support Unit and key stakeholders, including the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to assist the 24 most affected States Parties, including Afghanistan, in developing a plan of action in relation to mine victim assistance. The questionnaire called for responses to four key questions: what is the situation in 2005 in each of the six main thematic areas of victim assistance?; what does the state wish the situation to be in each of the six thematic areas by 2009?; what are the plans to achieve these objectives in each of the six thematic areas by 2009?; and what means are available or required to implement these plans?6 The Co-Chairs sent the questionnaire to the 24 States Parties in March 2005 which the aim that these States Parties produce objectives that were specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, or SMART, before the Sixth Meeting of the States Parties (6MSP) in Zagreb, Croatia, from 27 November – 2 December 2005. The questionnaire was viewed by the Government of Afghanistan as an opportunity to articulate specific, measurable and realistic objectives that would be relevant to the disability sector as a whole, to undertake activity planning to achieve these objectives, to estimate the costs and the means to implement these plans, and to identify capacities to monitor, evaluate and reassess the plan as required. To facilitate the task of completing the questionnaire, in November 2005 UNICEF recruited a consultant to come to Afghanistan to assist the government in the process. Through consultations with relevant ministries and colleagues from UN and other international and national agencies working in the disability sector, inputs were provided for the first draft report that included a situation analysis and objectives. This draft report was presented to the 6MSP at the end of November. The Zagreb Progress Report adopted by States Parties at the 6MSP, contained a lengthy annex which summarized the responses made by Afghanistan and most of the other relevant States Parties. (See Annex A) However, the Zagreb Progress Report acknowledged that the questionnaire “is not an end-product but rather an initial step in a long-term planning and implementation process.”7 At the 6MSP, Afghanistan, together with