The Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, in cooperation with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is organizing a series of meetings with associations of families of the missing persons from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main issue to be discussed is the Law on Missing Persons.The Law on the Missing was adopted in the BiH Parliament in November 2004, but it has not yet been fully implemented. This is due partially to the legal processes of law enforcement in BiH, which require additional sub-laws to be passed down to the administrative levels of the country's organization, and partially to the fact that the majority of families of missing persons are far from having a comprehensive understanding of their rights and status under the Law on the Missing.

It is the shared concern of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ICMP and the ICRC, who all worked together on drafting the Law, to see the Law fully enforced. The Law was originally drafted in consultation with family member representatives and the meetings organized by the Human Rights Ministry, in cooperation with ICMP and the ICRC, are expected to collect information about problems in implementation of the Law. They will be held on 18 and 26 April in Sarajevo, Brcko, Prijedor and Travnik.

All findings from the meetings with the families of the missing would be used to draft instructions that would facilitate more efficient implementation of the law, helping to make sure that the rights of families of the missing persons are met in a more appropriate and effective manner.

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For all further info please contact:
Mrs. Saliha Djuderija, Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees at 033 22 12 93
Mrs. Sanela Bajrambasic, ICRC BiH Spokesperson at 033 65 24 07
Mr. Vedran Persic, ICMP BiH Spokesperson at 033 280 800