The Hague, 6 April 2023:  Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of missing and disappeared persons and the numbers continue to rise by the day. Circumstances in which people go missing include forcible deportations, summary executions, incommunicado detention, kidnapping, and family separation, including unlawful adoptions and trafficking in human beings.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is partnering with Ukrainian civil society and families of the missing to ensure that all missing persons are accounted for and that the rights of families of the missing to truth, justice, and reparations are secured.

During a week-long visit to ICMP Headquarters by Ukrainian civil society organizations and families of the missing, supported by the European Union’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (EU FPI), participants reviewed the process of locating missing persons and reuniting families and were able to see at firsthand how a DNA-led identification process works. They…