Summary action points based on findings

• Fully fund the health and rehabilitation services as required under the Persons with Disabilities Act.
• Expand and implement the community-based rehabilitation program.
• Release and review the findings of the Survey of Living Conditions of Persons with Disabilities.
• Include landmine survivors and other persons with disabilities in the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act.
• Complete the survey of cluster munitions victims.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Zambia is responsible for landmine survivors and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Zambia has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and is also a State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Zambia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 1 February 2010.

Victim Assistance

According to the Zambian Mine Action Center (ZMAC), there have been 162 documented mine/ ERW casualties.[1]

Assessing victim assistance needs

Along the southern border, there are areas affected by cluster munitions and other ERW, but no casualties were reported in those areas in 2016. ZMAC has plans to identify casualties from cluster munitions and ERW and their needs in those areas, but the assessment had yet not started according to Zambia’s most recent reporting.[2] In 2009 and 2010, the Zambian Foundation of Landmine Survivors (ZAFLAS) implemented a casualty data collection project and it has plans for a needs assessment activity and will pursue funding for same.[3]

In 2015, the state Central Statistical Office and the University of Zambia conducted a National Disability Survey, preliminary results of which showed a national prevalence of disability of 7.2%.[4]

Victim assistance coordination[5]

Zambia does not have a specific victim assistance policy. The National Disability Act, passed in 2013 and intended to nationalize the CRPD, mandated the creation of the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities drafted and coordinates the National Implementation Plan on Disability. Disability is a cross-cutting issue in national development plans and each ministry has a designated focal point tasked with mainstreaming disability rights into service delivery programs.[6]

The National Implementation Plan on Disability lacks clear benchmarks and the National Disability Agency lacks the inspectors to ensure compliance with the National Disability Act. Zambia provides services and support to persons with disabilities as part of national social protection schemes; accessing those services requires formal registration which is centralized in Lusaka and not rights-based.[7]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

In 2016, the National Committee on Anti-Personnel Landmines (NCAL) hosted three meetings (the meeting schedule is quarterly, however only three meetings were held). In addition to these formal meetings, ad hoc meetings were held with representatives of landmine victims.[8] During an April 2016 visit, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities met with several disability groups and their representatives.[9] However, the outcomes of these meetings are not reflected in changes in policy or implementation.[10]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[11]

Emergency and continuing medical care

Zambia’s National Health Strategic Plan identified many shortcomings in the availability and quality of health services in the country. Medical and healthcare for persons with disabilities is supposed to be free under the Persons with Disabilities Act, but specialized services are often unavailable outside the main urban areas.[12]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

Prosthetics and other assistive devices are supposed to be available free of charge per the national social protection schemes.[13] In practice this is not the case and ZAFLAS has provided funding and support to survivors to obtain these devices.[14]

To address the issues of differential access to services between urban and rural areas, Zambia announced the launch of a community-based rehabilitation program.[15] Implementation of the program was slow, with most rehabilitation and prosthetic services limited to the reference hospitals in urban areas.[16]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) MoveAbility program has been working in Zambia for more than 20 years. MoveAbility, Otto Bock, and the Ministry of Health are collaborating to develop curricula for prosthetists at the University Teaching Hospital and MoveAbility discussed providing transport expenses for patients at the St. John Paul II Mission Hospital in Lusaka.[17]

Economic and social inclusion and psychological support

Under the National Social Protection Policy, unconditional cash transfers are made available to vulnerable persons, including persons with disabilities. By the end of 2015, almost 200,000 Zambians had benefited from this program,[18] the majority of whom are persons with disabilities. However, the program is means-tested so not all persons with disabilities qualify for the support, the cash transfer program is not available in all parts of the country, and the funding is not consistent and frequently delayed.[19] Landmine survivors have further critiqued the program as unsustainable.[20]

Psychiatric services are very limited in Zambia, and where they exist are “extremely harsh and deplorable.”[21] Psychosocial support for landmine survivors is provided by ZAFLAS as funds allow, but remain insufficient for the demand and need.[22]

Laws and policies

Zambia ratified CRPD in 2010 and domesticated the provisions of the convention with the 2012 Persons with Disabilities Act. The new constitution adopted in January 2016 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. However, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities noted several instances where discriminatory and stigmatizing language remains in many national policies and laws, including the new constitution.[23]