Posts Categorized: Flash News

ICMP Statement on Tadamon Massacre

photo credit: footage from the Guardian Video

The Hague, 12 May 2022: Recently circulated videos taken in Syria show blindfolded, unarmed civilians being shot by forces of the Assad regime. The victims are shown falling into a mass grave in the neighborhood of Tadamon. These killings are believed to have been perpetrated during a larger massacre in 2013. They are evidence of extrajudicial killings that reflect the horrors endured by the Syrian people over the past eleven years.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) supports the significant work of Syrian civil society organizations and their efforts to document missing persons cases and advocate for victims and their families. ICMP is working to set in place a process that will account for all…

On Iraq’s Mass Grave Day, ICMP calls for the protection and investigation of mass graves

Baghdad, 16 May 2021 – To commemorate Mass Graves Day in Iraq, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in collaboration with Bournemouth University presented a recently published protocol on mass grave investigation and protection to Iraqi authorities involved in efforts to account for missing persons.

In 2007, the Iraqi Council of Ministers designated 16 May as the National Day of Mass Graves to draw attention to the fate of individuals who were killed and disappeared during decades of conflict and human rights abuse and buried in mass graves. Iraqi authorities estimate that between 250.000 and 1 million persons have gone missing in the country.

To commemorate Mass Graves Day, ICMP presented to Iraqi stakeholders Arabic- and Kurdish-language copies of The Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation, a joint product of ICMP and Bournemouth University that defines legal and practical standards of the protection and investigation of mass…

Accounting for the Missing Is an Investment in Peace

The Hague, 19 February 2019: The Mediterranean remains the scene of daily tragedies, even if the reduction in the number of migrants reaching Europe has reduced media coverage of these tragedies, the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, wrote in an opinion piece that appeared in The Times of Malta today.

She noted that, “while fewer refugees have tried to make the journey, fatalities and disappearances have continued. In the first month of 2019, the number was already well into the hundreds,” and she added that refugees and migrants sent back to embarkation ports, many of them in Libya, have routinely been subject to arbitrary detention.

Ms Bomberger highlighted “an urgent need to mobilize existing capacities among European countries such as Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Italy”. She pointed out that all four countries expressed a strong interest during an ICMP meeting held in Rome in June…

ICMP visits Kirkuk’s Martyrs Directorate

Erbil, 17 January 2018: Last month the director of Kirkuk’ Martyrs Directorate welcomed a delegation from the International commission on Missing persons led by Mrs. Caroline Barker Head of Anthropology and Archaeology Division. Mrs. Barker mentioned the role of ICMP in the field of humanitarian cases in general, and what is related to the missing person’s cases caused by military actions and natural disasters.

From his side, the director explained to the delegation about the role of the Martyrs foundation in field of human rights, insisting on missing person’s rights and their families. He also praised their sacrifices in fighting injustice and tyranny that happened to the Iraqi People since the Ba’ath regime took over power and after the fall of the regime back in 2003 and the destruction of the infrastructure by Terrorist groups. He…

Western Balkans Regional Meeting Launches Database of Active Missing Persons Cases From the Armed Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia

7 December 2017 – Today in Belgrade, ICMP convened a regional meeting to present the Database of Active Missing-Persons Cases from the Armed Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia. The meeting brought together the Board of Directors of the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, chairpersons of the commissions on missing persons from Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, and the Assistant Minister in charge of the Directorate for Detainees and Missing Persons of Croatia.

ICMP’s regional partners in the Western Balkans expressed high praise for the Database and concluded that it will be an invaluable tool in their future work.

Since 1996, ICMP has spearheaded a regional effort that has made it possible to account for 70 percent of the 40,000 people who were missing because of the conflict in the Western Balkans. Nonetheless, there are still approximately 12,000 individuals who remain unaccounted for.

The…

ICMP Iraq News Update: The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan visits ICMP Office in Erbil

The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan visited the ICMP office in Iraq to discuss a range of issues on their way to Halabja. The group was led by The Right Honourable Alistair Burt MP for North East Bedfordshire, the ICMP’s new commissioner, who has a special interest in the Middle East. Other members of the group included Mr Johnathon Woodcock MP for Barrow in Furness, Lord Maurice Glasman (Baron Glasman) and Ms Emma Grubb, the senior advisor to Nadhim Zahawi, the UK’s first Kurdish-born MP.), as well…