ICMP: states must endeavor to account for the missing

ReliefWeb, Aljazeera Balkans, Lebanon Files, and FOKUS news agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina published an op-ed by ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, highlighting the close connection between addressing the issue of disappearances and upholding the rule of law. https://bit.ly/2BWyY8Q https://bit.ly/2omv4wD https://bit.ly/2LEnXJa https://bit.ly/2Pj57cK

Forbes: International Day of the Disappeared

Forbes Magazine has published an overview of the International Day of the Disappeared, examining the most pressing instances of enforced disappearances by state and non-state actors around the world. https://bit.ly/2Pmfsol

Syria reveals fate of the disappeared

CNN investigates the fate of 800 disappeared Syrians whose death notices were issued by the Syrian governments this summer, dispelling government claims of natural deaths in government prisons.  https://cnn.it/2omgIfv

Bosnia Searches for Mass Grave

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Missing Persons Institute is excavating a suspected mass grave containing 29…

ICMP: states must endeavor to account for the missing

Al Jazeera, Lebanon File and Relief Web have published an op-ed by the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, highlighting the close connection between accounting for missing persons and upholding the rule of law. https://bit.ly/2BWyY8Q

Pakistan: government urged to criminalize enforced disappearances

In a statement on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, the Chairman of Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), Ali Nawaz Chohan, has urged the government to amend the Pakistan Penal Code to make enforced disappearances an offence, Dawn newspaper reports. https://bit.ly/2PibUDg

Portugal commemorates the Disappeared

Portuguese news outlet, Mundo A Minuto, reports on the International Day of the Disappeared and the efforts by groups including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Amnesty International to…

Syria: 82,000 forcibly disappeared since 2011

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) says in a report that almost 82,000 Syrians have been forcibly disappeared by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad since the start of the conflict, with more than 14,000 listed as having died in detention. https://bit.ly/2wk9lK8

Spain: Civil War mass grave uncovered

Forensic archaeologists in eastern Spain have unearthed remains from a mass grave of 100 people believed to have been executed by the Franco regime at the end of the Civil War, Sky News reports. Mass graves across Spain are believed to hold at least 114,000 victims of the Civil War. http://bit.ly/2wxtiw2

Mediterranean migrants detained in Libya

African migrants refused entry by Italy last week said they have been detained by smugglers for up to two years in Libya and subject to human rights abuses. Reuters reports that the International Organization for Migration believes that thousands of…

UN releases report on Myanmar

The UN Human Rights Council has released a summary report detailing crimes against humanity committed in the Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states in Myanmar, which include enforced disappearance of Rohingya and other religious and ethnic minorities. The report qualified the persecution and murder of ethnic minorities as a genocide. https://bit.ly/2LzOiYJ

Malaysia: inquiry into activist’s disappearance

Free Malaysia Today reports on testimony given by a former inspector-general of police to the public inquiry into the disappearance of activist Amri Che Mat, who went missing in November 2016. His wife previously stated that five vehicles blocked Amri’s car before he was abducted from an area near his home in the northern state of Perlis. https://bit.ly/2wsTvMm

Turkey: demonstration to commemorate the missing shut down by police

Voice of America reports that police in Istanbul have stopped a vigil organized by the Saturday Mothers, a group protesting forced disappearances and…

HRW sends open letter to Imran Khan

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, to address the longstanding human rights situation in the country, including the problem of enforced disappearance, citing “serious allegations of human rights violations including torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings during counterterrorism operations”. https://bit.ly/2LtlwsR

Pakistan: almost 2,000 “active pending cases” of enforced disappearance

The Nation newspaper from Pakistan reports that the country’s National Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances says there are currently 1,815 active pending cases of enforced disappearance. The paper notes that families of the missing are expected to demonstrate throughout the country on Thursday, the International Day of the Disappeared. https://bit.ly/2PGtCS0

Sri Lanka mass grave

The BBC reports that skeletal remains of more than 90 individuals have been unearthed during excavations at a mass grave in Mannar in northern Sri Lanka. The lead forensic archeologist says the gravesite combines…

US-Mexico Border: challenges in identifying missing migrants

The Center for Investigative Reporting has published an in-depth analysis of efforts to account for missing migrants who have attempted to cross the US-Mexico border. Connecting missing migrants cases to unidentified remains is primarily done through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). https://bit.ly/2Pzz4pK

Bosnia and Herzegovina: commemoration of 1992 massacre

Survivors and victims’ families have commemorated 224 Bosniak and Croat prisoners of war who were killed in August 1992 at the Koricani cliffs on Mount Vlasic in Central Bosnia, N1 reports. Eleven people were sentenced to a total of 200 years in prison for the massacre. The remains of 80 of the victims have not yet been found. http://bit.ly/2o157m3

HRW urges UN to convene special session on Nicaragua

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has written to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with the support of 54 regional NGOs calling on the…

Kidnappings in Mexico decline

Mexico News Daily reports that kidnappings in Mexico have declined by 16 percent in the first seven months of 2018 compared to the same period last year. The numbers recorded during the term of President Enrique Peña Nieto remain the highest of any previous six-year presidential term, however, with more than 7,000 cases of disappearances registered. https://bit.ly/2N8Zltn

Nigerians missing on routes to Europe

The News Agency of Nigeria reports from the state of Edo in the south of the country, which it says has the highest number of human trafficking cases, recording more than 3,883 Libya returnees since November 2017. It quotes the chair of the state Task Force Against Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration as saying that more than half of Nigerian returnees from Libya were from Edo and that “we have records of thousands of Nigerians who were killed or missing in the Sahara…