War, Armed Conflict

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• War, Armed Conflict Disability Challenges,
  Statistics, Facts
• Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability
• Djerba, Tunis
• October 24, 2007

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• Contents
• Definition of conflict
• Types of conflict
• Size of conflict worldwide
• Characteristics, tools conflict arenas
• Relationship between conflict and disability
• Effects of conflict on individual safety, health,
  wellbeing and development
• Rehabilitating improving the lives of persons
  disabled by armed conflict

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• Definition of Conflict
• Conflict is a human phenomenon, a social process
  which has been going on since the dawn of
  humanity.

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• 2. Types of Conflict
• Regional wars
• Civil wars
• Social violence
• Family violence
• Terrorist attacks

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• 3. Size of Conflicts
• The world spends over 839 billion dollars a year
  on conflicts, arms and equipping armies
• Landmines and random explosions result in the
  largest number of disabilities caused by wars and
  armed conflicts

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• 3. Continued
• There is in the world today more than 65 active
  conflicts in all regions of the world
• Modern conflicts encompass cities, human
  settlements urban centers
• The increase in the number of victims of conflict
  is proportional to the increase variety of
  conflicts
• Populations of Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt,
  Guatemala, Lebanon, Sarajevo, Sudan suffer the
  greatest consequences of landmines in the world

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• 3. Continued
• 1/3 of the world spends more on their military
  budget than they do on medical services
• In June 2002 the G8 agreed to allocate 22 billion
  dollars to stop terrorism weapons of mass
  destruction, but no actions were taken on small
  weapons and handguns
• World estimates put the number of child soldiers
  used in different conflicts at 300.000 children

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• 3. continued
• Africa, Asia Latin America spend more than 22
  billion dollars a year on weaponsthe same amount
  needed to reach the targets of the Millennium
  Development Goals
• There are more than 639 million individual arms
  and light weapons manufactured by 1135 companies
  in 89 countries
• A great percentage of the funds that should be
  used in development are used to fund conflicts

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• 3. continued
• Over 8 million new weapons small arms are
  produced annually 60 of which end up in civilian
  hands
• 16 billion units of ammunition are produced
  annuallyi.e. two units (bullets, bombs) for
  every man, woman child on the planet
• By the year 2020 more people are expected to die
  as a result of armed conflicts war than from
  all other causes

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• Highlights of the results of conflict in Lebanon
• Lebanese army reports in June 2005 put the number
  of landmines victims since 1970 at 1835 deaths
  and 2140 injured with permanent disabilities
• There are half a million landmines and one
  million cluster bombs scattered in 155 Lebanese
  villages in Southern and Eastern Lebanon. These
  have resulted in 224 victims since July 2006 to
  this day.

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• Highlights of the results of conflicts in Iraq
• 2003 estimates put the number of individual arms
  in Iraq at 24 million pieces, enough to arm every
  Iraqi man, woman child
• Landmines random explosions constitute the
  main threat to Iraqi civilians causing to date
  between 15-20,000 disability a year

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• 4. Characteristics, tools arenas of armed
  conflicts
• Characteristics of conflict
• Expansion of the areas of conflict
• Globalization of conflict
• Intensity of conflict
• Variety of tools used
• Greater powers of destruction
• Greater harm to persons, environment, way of life

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• 5. Relationship between armed conflict
  disability
• There is a direct correlation between armed
  conflict disability
• Dealing with the results of a few minutes of
  conflicts can take up to 10 years and cost
  several million dollars
• In as much as wars armed conflicts lead to
  disability, persons with disabilities are in turn
  more likely to become victims of violence due to
  their disability
• Children women with disabilities are often more
  vulnerable in times of armed conflict

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• 5. continued
• In addition to traditional wars between nations,
  civil wars armed conflicts between local
  factions, cluster bombs, landmines and terrorist
  attacks are the principal cause of disability
  among civilians in most countries

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• 6. Effect of armed conflict on the health,
  safety, wellbeing, development
• Violence is one of the main contributors to
  disability
• The world needs intensive awareness raising
  programs on the effects of violence
• Persons with disabilities are more likely to be
  victims of violence, abuse and exploitation

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• Violence remains one of the main threats to the
  safety, development and wellbeing of children
• War, terrorism, domestic violence, neglect,
  confessional/sectarian violence, organized crime
  constitute major threats to civilians,
  particularly children women across the world
• 57,000 children die every year due to violence
  armed conflict, according to WHO.

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• For every child that is killed as a result of
  armed violence, 100 children are left with
  permanent, life-long disabilities
• In many countries persons with disabilities are
  the victims of hate crimes, racial conflicts
  racism
• In many countries children persons with
  disabilities are forced into lives of begging on
  the streets
• In many countries children with mild or
  intellectual disabilities are victims of sexual
  exploitation trafficking

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• 7. Challenges of rehabilitation in face of
  violent conflict
• 1. Rehabilitation
• a process aimed at enabling persons with
  disabilities to reach maintain their optimal
  physical, sensory, intellectual, psychiatric,
  social functional levels, providing them with the
  tools to achieve higher levels of independence

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• Rehabilitation
• 2. Rehabilitation is a right for every individual
  with disability regardless of the type and degree
  of their disability
• 3. Governments, organizations communities are
  required to ensure the provision of appropriate
  rehabilitation services to persons with
  disabilities

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• Wars armed conflict situation also produce
  invisible psychosocial disabilities resulting
  from trauma.
• Left untreated trauma will result in permanent
  and debilitating disabilities

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• Depression Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  (PTSD)
• A 1996 study has found that depression PTSD
  will become the second leading cause of
  disability in post-conflict countries. (Murray
  Lopez)
• Rehabilitation for PTSD has been on the
  assumption that the effects are transitory
• Studies show that for displaced refugee
  populations PTSD is long-lasting requires
  on-going rehabilitation

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• Depression PTSD
• Prevalence of depression among populations that
  have experience armed conflict is 60-70 as
  opposed to 10-20 in non-conflict countries
• People who have suffered physical disabilities
  due to war require rehabilitation services at all
  levels

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5. Measures necessary for successful
rehabilitation

• At the national level
• Adopting clear policies
• Enacting legislations
• Implementing programmes
• Allocating financial resources
• Training personnel
• Making rehabilitation services accessible
• Involving disabled persons organizations

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• Rehabilitation Services should include
• All persons who need it
• All types of disabilities
• All socio-economic groups
• All racial groups
• All geographic areas
• All religions, denominations, sects
• Refugees displaced populations