31 August 2016: Today, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, ICMP’s Iraq program has organized a social media campaign to light a million virtual candles representing missing persons in Iraq.

“Today is an important day throughout the world, but it’s especially important in Iraq,” said the Head of ICMP’s Iraq program Trefor Williams. “Up to one million persons are believed to have gone missing in Iraq in the last 40 years, more than in any other country in the world.”

ICMP has been engaged in Iraq since 2003, working with the authorities to strengthen operational and technical capacities, including providing training in mass grave exhumations, crime scene management, and mortuary procedures; providing guidance on effective operational planning, inter-agency cooperation and chain of custody; and upgrading mortuary facilities. ICMP has also worked with families of the…

30 August 2016: Today, in order to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, ICMP’s Western Balkans program organized a social media campaign to light 12,000 virtual candles representing missing persons in the Western Balkans.

Also, in cooperation with associations of families of the missing and the Ministry for Refugees and Human Rights, ICMP organized an event in Sarajevo. Silhouettes symbolizing missing persons were erected in the Square of Sarajevo Children, and passersby were invited to write messages and place them on the installations. Volunteers and families distributed information about the effort to account for the missing, and urged the authorities to accelerate the process and to become more engaged in marking the International Day of the Disappeared.

“ICMP has spearheaded the effort to account for the 40,000 persons who were missing at the end of the conflict,” said Matthew Holliday, the Head of…

30 August 2016: Today, in order to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, ICMP organized a global social media campaign to light virtual candles representing persons missing around the world.

“Every year, millions of people around the world go missing because of conflict, human rights abuses, people trafficking, migration, disasters or other causes,” said ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger. “Thousands have gone missing as a result of the Mediterranean migration crisis in the last two years, and that is one area where the international community must develop a coordinated approach. The number of persons who have disappeared because of atrocities and human rights violations in Iraq is another area where a focused, rule-of-law approach is required.”

ICMP is preparing to launch an initiative with the International Organization on Migration and other agencies to assess the number of migrants who are going missing and set…

30 August 2016: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) today announced the launch of its restructured Online Inquiry Center (OIC). The OIC is an interactive missing persons search tool that makes it possible to provide or obtain information about a missing person. It can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

“The OIC is a unique and invaluable tool that gives stakeholders – including families of the missing and those who are responsible for locating and identifying missing persons – access to ICMP’s database, which currently contains information on around 40,000 missing persons,” said ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger. “We have expanded the number of language versions and we have made the software easier to use. We believe this is a substantial and strategic contribution to the effort to account for missing persons around the world.”

The OIC can now be accessed in English,…

30 August 2016: The Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, today welcomed the announcement of a definitive agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) to end five decades of armed conflict. The final agreement recognizes the rights of victims of the conflict, including the rights of families of the missing and disappeared.

“The conclusion of the negotiations is a historic step on Colombia’s long and difficult road to peace,” Ms. Bomberger said. “ICMP is committed to working with families of the missing, the authorities and others in Colombia to ensure that the issue of missing persons is addressed in an effective, inclusive, sustainable and just manner.”

The elements of the agreement that deal with the issue of missing persons assign a specific role to ICMP, which is tasked with…