Monthly Archives: August 2018

ICMP Joins Albanian Partners To Mark International Day of the Disappeared

Filed under Press Releases

Tirana, Albania, 30 August 2018: In Tirana today, Matthew Holliday, Head of the Western Balkans Program at the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), presented ICMP’s “Site Locator”, an on-line application that facilitates the search for clandestine gravesites. Mr Holliday also spoke about the “Report a Missing Person” module, which makes it possible for people to provide information that can assist in resolving missing persons cases. Both of these programs are accessed through the Online Inquiry Centre (OIC) at www.icmp.int.

Mr Holliday was speaking at an event in Tirana today that was organized with ICMP support by the Authority for Information on Former Communist Police Secret Files and the Institute for the Integration of the Formerly Politically Persecuted, to mark International Day of the Disappeared.

“The Albanian authorities and ICMP share the goal of protecting the rights of families of the missing, in particular by ensuring that the whereabouts of…

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States Must Endeavour to Account for the Missing

Filed under News Press Releases

30 August 2018: In an op-ed published on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons, Kathryne Bomberger, has highlighted the close connection between accounting for the missing and upholding the rule of law.

Ms Bomberger notes that “governments have well recognized human rights obligations to investigate reports about missing persons and to establish the circumstances of their disappearance, and to do this without regard to nationality, ethnicity or other group characteristics.” She stresses that “no lesser investigative standard is justified based on whether a person goes missing in armed conflict, a maritime disaster or as a migrant fleeing pervasive lawlessness and abuse. Individuals may be traveling on forged documents, or with no documents at all; they may have paid a trafficker for passage in an unregistered vessel. These contraventions have no bearing on the obligations of states when people…

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Baghdad Conference Addresses Multiple Aspects Of the Missing Persons Issue  

Filed under News Press Releases

Baghdad, 30 August 2018: To mark International Day of the Disappeared, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), in cooperation with the Foundation for Art in Life, organized an event at the National Museum in Baghdad today, which was attended by more than a hundred participants representing almost all government ministries, as well as diplomatic missions and civil society.

Relatives of the missing gave powerful testimonies, describing the challenges that families face when a loved one is a victim of disappearance.

Accompanying the public discussion was an exhibition of art and videography on the theme of missing persons, created by artists from throughout Iraq and from different communities and ethnic groups, exploring the missing persons theme. During the event, the celebrated cellist, Karim Wasfi, played an original composition marking International Day of the Disappeared.

In their remarks, government officials agreed on the need for a proactive response to the issue of missing…

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ICMP: the Facts Surrounding Srebrenica Are Not Disputable

Filed under Press Releases

The Hague August 16: In the Republika Srpska (RS) National Assembly on Tuesday attempts were made to reject or significantly amend the Report of the Commission for Investigation of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10 and 19 July 1995, produced for the RS Government 14 years ago. The Report laid out the facts surrounding the events at Srebrenica and called on the RS leadership to apologize to the families of the victims.

The RSNA’s move to reject or amend this Report directly undermines reconciliation and the full implementation of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The facts established by the Report have been confirmed by international and domestic criminal courts. The facts have also been supported by two decades of systematic forensic work conducted by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). ICMP’s work has confirmed earlier conclusions regarding the events at Srebrenica and Zepa in…

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ICMP Is Helping Partners in Iraq To Take Urgent Steps to Identify the Missing

Filed under Press Releases

Erbil, 6 August 2018: It is four years since Da’esh occupied Nineveh Governorate in Iraq and launched a campaign of enforced disappearance, enslavement and summary execution that has left a legacy of mass graves. More than a year has passed since the area, which includes the district of Sinjar and the city of Mosul, was retaken by forces of the Baghdad government amid a high rate of military and civilian casualties. Today, volunteer teams in Mosul are collecting and storing human remains in makeshift conditions, while a systematic process of exhuming mass graves in Sinjar is not yet underway.

Faced with the urgent need to address this issue, local authorities in Nineveh have reached out directly to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). At a meeting on 25 July with the Head of ICMP’s Iraq program, Lena Larsson, the Chair of Nineveh Provincial Council, Bashar Al-Kiki, announced that the…

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