The Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, and the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, signed an Agreement in The Hague today establishing ICMP’s international headquarters in the Netherlands. The organization will be based in the City of The Hague.

The Host State Agreement with ICMP provides a strong basis for ICMP to enhance its cooperation with governments and others to address the global problem of missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters and other causes. In addition, ICMP’s new headquarters will allow it to work more closely with international courts to better secure the rights of survivors to truth and justice.

“The current migration crisis reminds us again of the importance of the work of ICMP,” Minister Koenders said at the signing ceremony. “Among the millions of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict or persecution, thousands go missing and among them…

The issue of disappearances and murders of First Nation women in Canada has been gaining an increasing amount of media attention. The exact number of missing and murdered aboriginal women is not known. Some media investigations have suggested that over the past 30 years more than 1,200 women have gone missing in Canada. The RCMP states that the violence is often perpetrated by members…

The News on Sunday, a weekly magazine in Pakistan, reported on 2 August that the country’s Human Rights Commission had condemned the killing of a man in the southern province of Sindh who had been arrested by uniformed security forces. The headline of the piece was “Sindh: A new Balochistan?” and the article cited the incident as possible evidence of a wave of enforced disappearances throughout the country. Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, though it has a population of just under 10 million. Since 2003, a nationalist movement has sustained a drive for independence, reviving historical claims that enjoy considerable support. The central government has responded in a manner that has generally been described as heavy-handed. Sindh, which borders Balochistan, is Pakistan’s most populous province; its largest city, Karachi, is the commercial capital of the country. The prospect of Sindh following Balochistan in terms of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial…

The 2015 Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) gave special attention to the issue of missing persons, with several documentary and feature films covering the subject. Four documentaries focused on Srebrenica: “The Sigh of Life, Srebrenica”, “Adil”, “The Mist of Srebrenica” and “The Voices of Srebrenica”. All four films tell stories of survivors of genocide and pose questions about life, war and forgiveness, as well as considering human hardship and the burden of loss.

A documentary film “Remember me”, produced by the Izvor Association from Prijedor, was also shown during the 21st SFF. This film tells the story of two girls who were small children at the time of their fathers’ internment and disappearance.

“15-minute Massacre in Dvor” was shown as part of the “1995 – 2015 Dealing with the Past” program at the festival. The film tells the story of the massacre of nine people with disabilities in Dvor, Croatia, at the…