Summary: State Party El Salvador ratified the convention on 10 January 2011. It has participated in most of the convention’s meetings and voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. El Salvador has condemned new use of cluster munitions. El Salvador provided its initial transparency report for the convention in August 2014, confirming it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of El Salvador signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 10 January 2011, and the convention entered into force for El Salvador on 1 July 2011.

It is not clear if El Salvador intends to enact specific legislation to implement the convention.[1] Under national implementation measures in its Article 7 transparency report, it reported the Executive Order 1064/2010 of 21 July 2010, which approved its ratification of the convention.[2]

El Salvador provided its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 31 August 2014.[3] As of 26 June 2016, El Salvador had not submitted any of the annual updated reports due by 30 April.

El Salvador participated actively in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, frequently aligning itself with the views of many Latin American states in favor of the strongest, most comprehensive convention text possible.[4]

El Salvador has participated in every Meeting of States Parties to the convention and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015. It was invited to, but did not attend the First Review Conference of the convention in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. El Salvador has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.

On 7 December 2015, El Salvador voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[5]

El Salvador has strongly condemned “all forms of cluster munition use.”[6] It has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[7]

El Salvador has not elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

El Salvador is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report, El Salvador confirmed it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[8]

El Salvador has not retained any cluster munitions for research or training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of El Salvador signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 27 January 1999, and became a State Party on 1 July 1999. The treaty is enforced domestically through Article 346-C of Decree 471 (Reform of the Penal Code), which entered into force on 30 November 2004.[1]

El Salvador has attended most meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided a general statement, as well as statements on victim assistance and the Implementation Support Unit report.[2] El Salvador also attended the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019. However, El Salvador did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. El Salvador has submitted almost all annual updated Article 7 transparency reports.

El Salvador is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

El Salvador has reported that it has not produced antipersonnel mines.[3] El Salvador is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines, but in the past it imported antipersonnel mines, including M14 mines, M26 mines, and M18A1 Claymore mines, all manufactured by the United States.[4]

El Salvador completed destruction of its stockpile of 7,549 antipersonnel mines on 20 February 2003.[5] In its initial Article 7 report submitted in 2001, El Salvador stated that it would not retain any mines for training.[6] In subsequent reporting, El Salvador stated that the armed forces retained a total of 96 antipersonnel mines (50 M14 and 46 M26) for the purposes of training and development.[7] However, in May 2008, El Salvador reported that it destroyed 72 mines retained for training.[8] El Salvador has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, and has not used the expanded Form D for reporting on retained mines agreed by States Parties. It has not reported an updated number of mines retained for training since 2012.

Use

There have been no reports or allegations of landmine use in El Salvador since the early 1990s.[9]

Action points based on findings

• Adopt the revised law on the inclusion of persons with disabilities and dedicate resources to its implementation.
• Develop a means to monitor the implementation of accessibility standards to ensure widespread compliance, including in rural areas.
• Ensure that all mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors and other persons with disabilities have equal access to programs and services.
• Dedicate sufficient resources to service providers so they can attend all the needs of persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of El Salvador is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors and survivors of other ERW who are in need. El Salvador has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and is a State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, including Protocol V.

El Salvador ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 14 December 2007.

Casualties Overview

There were no casualties from mines or ERW identified in El Salvador in 2015.[1] The last reported casualties occurred in 2011 when one person was killed and another injured from explosives abandoned during armed conflict.[2]

There were known to be at least 4,674 casualties in El Salvador through the end of 2015. Of the total, the number of people killed and injured was not reported, but as of May 2016, 566 registered mine/ERW survivors had died from other causes.[3]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2015, at least 4,108 mine/ERW survivors were registered in El Salvador of whom 92.3% were men. Of the total, 63% of accidents occurred because of a landmine explosion, while the remaining 37% were ERW-related casualties.[4]

Victim assistance since 1999[5]

Since 1999, El Salvador’s Protection Fund for the Injured and Disabled as a Result of the Armed Conflict (Fondo de Protección de Lisiados y Discapacitados a Consecuencia del Conflicto Armado, Protection Fund) has enabled military and civilian survivors[6] to access a range of services and benefits, including medical and rehabilitation services, pensions, subsidies and economic benefits, vocational training, and economic inclusion programs. Services were initially only available in El Salvador’s capital and most, except for medical care, were provided via international organizations. Starting in 2005, the Ministry of Health began to decentralize healthcare throughout the country. In 2009, the Protection Fund also decentralized its offices and now has two regional offices in the departments of San Miguel and Chalatenango, where most of the survivors are located. By 2009, nearly all services for survivors and others disabled by armed conflict were conducted through national capacity with national funds, thus ensuring their sustainability following the withdrawal of international donors.

In 2001, Landmine Survivor Network (LSN, later renamed Survivor Corps) initiated the only peer-to-peer support program and one of the only psychological support programs available to mine/ERW survivors. The program was nationalized in 2009 as the Network of Survivors and Persons with Disabilities (Network of Survivors) and has continued to be pivotal in assisting survivors and other persons with disabilities to access services and promote their rights.

Throughout the period, efforts have been made to develop the physical rehabilitation capacity by opening new prosthetics workshops and rehabilitation services centers, and through the University of Don Bosco School of Prosthetics and Orthotics’ training program. Progress was slow with survivors only noting modest improvements since 2009, but improvement in services were noted from 2013 with the opening of the Protection Fund’s physical rehabilitation center.

Starting in 2009, an enhanced political focus on the rights of El Salvador’s war-wounded increased availability of all services provided through the Protection Fund. The availability of programs offering microcredit, peer-to-peer support, and group therapy increased as the Protection Fund expanded coverage throughout the country. This has resulted in more services available to a growing number of mine/ERW survivors and others disabled by armed conflict. All other service providers, including both NGOs and some government-supported providers, have reported static or decreasing budgets to respond to the needs of mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities, and many have now left the country.

Victim assistance coordination and planning in El Salvador has been intermittent; changes in government leadership have resulted in frequent restructuring of coordination mechanisms for war-victims, victim assistance, and disability issues. Overlapping functions among the Protection Fund, military and veteran agencies, and the Council for Integrated Attention for Persons with Disabilities (Consejo Nacional de Atención Integral a las Personas con Discapacidad, CONAIPD) have also complicated coordination efforts. CONAIPD is the government agency responsible for protecting disability rights and is active in the country, but generally lacked enforcement capacity.[7]

Victim assistance in 2015

Minor changes increased challenges, although some improvements were reported in the availability of medical, physical rehabilitation, and socio-economic inclusion services for mine/ERW survivors during 2015. Throughout the country, insecurity and lack of funding forced various civil society organizations to limit their geographical coverage and maintain or reduce the number of beneficiaries accessing services. A lack of political will and a sharp decrease in international aid, as a result of El Salvador being qualified a middle-income country, also affected the capacity of service providers to be innovative and introduce new technologies.

Nevertheless, in some cases improvements were noted in access to micro loans for socio-economic initiatives, particularly for women. No major changes were reported in physical accessibility of buildings and infrastructure.

All of the same governmental and non-governmental service providers who were active in 2014 remained active in 2015 and served similar numbers of beneficiaries, though with slightly reduced geographic coverage.

In terms of laws and policies, a draft law on the inclusion of persons with disabilities aligned with the CRPD was being developed but had not been reviewed by the legislative assembly as of June 2016. Although there was generally little representation of survivors and persons with disabilities in decision-making spaces, they were active in the elaboration of the draft law.

Assessing victim assistance needs

No major changes were reported in the assessment of the victims’ needs in 2015. Throughout the year the Protection Fund continued to collect information on survivors’ needs through monthly field visits to address those needs and refer them to appropriate institutions when further assistance was needed. A special office to collect information on gender situations was also opened.[8]

In April 2015, the Protection Fund collected a sampling that included updated information on its beneficiaries, including mine/ERW survivors, and an evaluation of the disability condition according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) standard (Clasificación Internacional del Funcionamiento, de la Discapacidad y de la Salud, CIF). The World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule II system, which provides ICF characterization, was integrated to the Protection Fund’s data collection methods.[9]

In 2014 and into 2015, the Association of War Wounded of El Salvador (Asociación de Lisiados de Guerra de El Salvador, ALGES) conducted a study on life conditions of its members at the national level, which included information on organization and participation levels, as well as socioeconomic and health conditions.[10]

Victim assistance coordination[11]

In 2015, there was no active inter-ministerial coordination of victim assistance for mine/ERW survivors in El Salvador. Few coordination efforts were reported by civil society organizations, with the exception of the Protection Fund meetings.[12] Those meetings included participatory forums by its Consultative Group on Disability throughout the country, which were attended by more than 20 associations working in the disability sector. The Consultative Group on Disability meetings provided an inclusive decision-making process on the strengthening of rehabilitation services, economic inclusion, and mental health programs, as well as on the extension of psychological support services available to the beneficiaries. Among the participating organizations were ALGES, ASALDIG, ALFAES, and ALGFAES.[13] Coordination meetings for the elaboration of a draft law on disability were also held by PODES, as well the Permanent Committee of Persons with Disabilities with the participation of CONAIPD and the National Council for the Defense of Human Rights (Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos No Gubernamental, PDDH). The National Plan of Assistance for Antipersonnel Mine Victims was inactive and was considered by many to be practically non-existent. No meetings to monitor the implementation of the victim assistance plan were reported.[14]

El Salvador has self-identified as a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty with a significant number of survivors and need for assistance. At the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2015, El Salvador stated that it believes that synergies between victim assistance and other treaties, particularly the CRPD, will help states meet all obligations and that Mine Ban Treaty States Parties continue to consider victim assistance very important issue.[15] However, El Salvador did not report internationally on its victim assistance activities for 2015. It did not provide updates on progress or challenges for victim assistance at the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties or at the intersessional Standing Committee Meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty in May 2016. The last Article 7 report submitted by El Salvador was for calendar year 2013.

Survivor inclusion and participation

In general, participation and inclusion of mine/ERW survivors and their representative organizations in the planning, coordination, and implementation of victim assistance remained limited. The Protection Fund generally holds planning meetings in which survivor organizations are invited.[16] Survivors and their representative organizations are also part of Protection Fund’s board of directors (including as president), which holds meeting on a weekly basis.[17] This body is responsible for establishing strategies to ensure law enforcement and to define priorities in the management of the institution’s financial resources.[18]

Half of the members of CONAIPD’s general council are representatives of disabled persons’ organizations.[19] Activities during 2015–2016, including ALGES and the Network of Survivors.[20] Three survivors were members of CONAIPD’s general and technical councils, which have the mandate of elaborating its annual action plan. Persons with disabilities, including landmine survivors also participated in thematic commissions held by CONAIPD that addressed issues related to health, education, employment, inclusive development and governance, accessibility, legislation, culture and sports, and information and communication.[21]

However, there were no specific coordination or consultation efforts in regards to addressing disability-related issues in 2015.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

In 2015, various organizations reported a decrease both in the number of beneficiaries and geographical coverage at the national level. This was mainly due to raising insecurity in the country, but also to a general lack of financial resources and political will to address survivors’ needs.[22]

However, at the civil society level, improvements were noted in accessibility for women and children. Among other initiatives, the Survivor Network included women and children with disabilities as a strategic and crosscutting issue in its 2016–2019 strategic planning, while ALFAES reported an increase in women accessing credit after receiving orientation sessions. The Protection Fund also created an office to collect information on gender issues.[23]

The Protection Fund reported a slight decrease in the budget allocated to beneficiaries in comparison to what has been originally anticipated, resulting in less ambitious targets for socio-economic inclusion programs and the suspension of the opening of two additional regional offices.[24]

No major changes were reported in physical accessibility for persons with disabilities, except for a few public buildings where access ramps were added. Survivors in rural areas who live in conditions of extreme poverty have generally poor or no access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.[25] In 2015, the Survivor Network promoted the construction of access ramps in various municipalities through a project in collaboration with the Municipal Offices for Disability (Oficinas Municipales de Apoyo a la Discapacidad, OMADIS).[26]

Victim assistance activities in 2015[27]

Emergency and ongoing medical care

In 2015, the Protection Fund provided medical assistance to 1,226 beneficiaries, including mine/ERW survivors both in rural and urban areas, of which 90% were men.[28] The Protection Fund has an agreement with the national military hospital to allow survivors of armed conflict (both former military combatants and civilians) to access medical care there for health issues related to their war injuries.[29] The Protection Fund has also various agreements with the National Health Network’s hospitals in order to improve the coordination of medical care and emergency services provision.[30]

UCADFA provide medical assistance to military survivors in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Protection Fund. Through 2014 and into 2015, UCADFA held information sessions and offered legal counselling and medical consultations for disabled veterans and their families throughout the country.[31] However, beneficiaries reported that assistance was of poor quality (long waiting hours, unavailability of medicines, lost medical files), with the exception of patients referred by the Protection Fund as the entity takes responsibility for all financial charges.[32]

In 2015, the ICRC continued efforts to help ensure that conflict/violence affected patients, including those suffering from weapon wounds, psychological trauma, and amputees/disabled persons, could access appropriate/life-saving care.[33]

Physical rehabilitation

2014 was the first year of operation of the Protection Fund’s Aníbal Salinas Prosthesis Laboratory, a physical rehabilitation facility constructed in 2013. It began providing services to beneficiaries of the fund in early 2013 and was considered “fully equipped” by November 2014.[34] In 2015, the Laboratory started providing home-based services and included the development of orthopedic footwear in its curriculum. During the year, the Protection Fund also improved accessibility to services for its beneficiaries through the creation of a physical rehabilitation unit. However, the laboratory’s budget was lowered by 43% compared to 2014, reducing the overall physical rehabilitation capacity of the Protection Fund. Throughout the year, 8,363 persons (of which 95% were men) received support in physical rehabilitation through the fund, including prosthesis and orthosis, wheelchairs, per diem to travel to physical rehabilitation centers, medicines, etc.[35]

In 2015, the Don Bosco University continued to provide training to rehabilitation professionals in the region, with technical and financial support from the ICRC SFD, which also sponsored training for five prosthetists/orthotists. The ICRC SFD also supported dialogue between Don Bosco University and the authorities on the role of the Ministry of Health in the regulation of the physical rehabilitation sector, and discussions were held with CONAIPD to strengthen collaboration on disability issues. The ICRC SFD support to the Integral Rehabilitation Institute of El Salvador (ISRI) and the Santa Ana Hospital continued.[36] Collaboration with Don Bosco University also allowed for the training of eight orthopedic technicians from Peru, Ecuador, and Nicaragua through a distance-learning course.[37] Throughout the year, the ICRC SFD ensured access to services, including physiotherapy and specialized services for over 2,300 people at Don Bosco University, the ISRI, and Santa Ana Hospital.[38] The ICRC SFD plans to continue supporting the three institutions in 2016, particularly on access to and quality of services, as well as education and training.[39]

CERPROFA continued to provide rehabilitation services to former military personnel. During medical campaign activities organized by UCADFA in the beginning of 2015, CERPROFA provided prosthesis reparations and various mobility devices to disabled veterans.[40]

In 2015, the Rehabilitation Foundation, in cooperation with the ISRI, continued to operate a treatment center for persons with disabilities, with minimal funding from the government.[41]

Economic and social inclusion

The Protection Fund remained the main provider of social protection and support for income-generating projects for mine/ERW survivors. In 2015, it expanded its socio-productive reintegration programs and expanded the provision of loans and goods to survivors to start small businesses or purchase a home or land.[42]

In 2015, ALFAES reported an increase in the number of beneficiaries accessing loans from the Protection Fund, including mine/ERW victims’ widows or family mothers, as a result of orientation sessions.[43]

The Survivors Network created a special unit on economic inclusion of persons with disabilities. With funds from an organizational capacity-building award, which also allowed for the consolidation of their vocational training program.[44]

In February 2015, CONAIPD held a meeting with the Ibero-American Network of Persons with Physical Disabilities’ Organizations (Red Iberoamericana de Entidades de Personas con Discapacidad Física) in order to discuss mutual cooperation in socio-inclusion projects.[45]

Despite these efforts, discrimination against persons with disabilities was frequent with employers frequently firing or denying access to employment opportunities to persons with disabilities. Denied access to education was also reported in some schools lacking facilities and resources for children with disabilities.[46]

Psychosocial inclusion

The Protection Fund remained the only provider of professional psychological support to survivors, via its national and department offices but had to operate with limited personnel in 2015.[47] In 2014, the Protection Fund launched its Mental Health Program, which aims at attending the needs of beneficiaries with psychological and mental health related problems as a consequence of the armed conflict, which include victims of mines/ERW. The program provides home-based services throughout the country, prioritizing people with significant psychological issues, people having limited access to services and treatments, and people deprived of liberty. The program includes personal development and awareness-raising activities for the beneficiaries, their families, caregivers, and communities in order to foster social inclusion.[48]

According to ALFAES, low rates of participation of persons with disabilities in community social, cultural, and/or artistic activities reflect a need for empowerment among this population. Discrimination and barriers in accessing education were also reported.[49]

Laws and policies

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, air travel and other transportation, access to healthcare, and the provision of other state services. In 2015, the government neither allocated sufficient resources to enforce these prohibitions effectively, nor enforced legal requirements for access to buildings, information, and communications for persons with disabilities. There were almost no access ramps or provisions for the mobility of persons with disabilities. Children with disabilities generally attended primary school, but attendance at higher levels was guaranteed by the state.[50]

In April 2014, the National Policy for Comprehensive Assistance for Persons with Disabilities was approved. Its objectives are to guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities through the removal of physical and social barriers, and provide for improved coordination mechanisms. It also aims at updating current legislation according to the international legal framework. The policy was elaborated by CONAIPD following a series of public consultations with persons with disabilities and their families, civil society organizations, and representatives of government institutions and international organizations.[51]

Since 2013, CONAIPD and the PDDH’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are working on a draft disability law aligned with the CRPD, to replace the existing law on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. The law combines input from disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) through the PDDH consultative process.[52] In 2015, DPOs and the PDDH continued to work together to submit the draft law to the legislative assembly.[53]

In January 2015, the Protection Fund was reviewing the Law for the Protection of Wounded and Disabled Persons as a Result of the Armed Conflict in order to develop draft legislation in line with the CRPD.[54] During the year it was reported that a group of veterans, which include survivors of the armed conflict, obtained approval from the government on the law for war veterans that provides benefits for this sector.[55]

Accessibility adjustments had not been made and the Ministry of Transportation was not doing the necessary monitoring despite a legal reform by the legislative assembly stating that at least 10% of the public transportation system must be accessible for persons with disabilities. In 2015 in San Salvador, the Metropolitan Area Transportation System (Sistema de Transporte del Área Metropolitano de San Salvador, SITRAMSS) initiated a project aimed at making public buses accessible for persons with disabilities.[56] Minor modifications were also made to the Land Transportation and Traffic Safety Law in order to improve access to accessible parking lots.[57]

In 2015, efforts were made to ensure the participation of persons with disabilities in the municipal and legislative elections through the signature of an agreement between the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and CONAIPD, which allowed for improved accessibility in the whole process.[58]

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommended that El Salvador develop a monitoring mechanism for compliance with accessibility standards and increase efforts to ensure access in rural areas and to community services.[59]

In early 2015, El Salvador removed a reservation that it had made upon signing the CRPD and thus fully recognized the applicability of the convention.[60]

CONAIPD, as the governmental body responsible for addressing disability issues, provided training on the CRPD to representatives of public and private bodies, among whom were persons with disabilities, including armed conflict survivors.[61]