The 1992 agreement that ended 12 years of civil war in El Salvador created conditions for  this country of just over six million people to move decisively away from conflict. A generation later, the casualty rate from gang violence exceeds 1980s levels.

Whereas the war pitted a land-owning class and its military allies against agricultural workers and urban intellectuals, today’s violence is sustained by competition among narco-gangs. In August 2015, after the end of a controversial truce between government and gangs under the presidency of Mauricio Funes (2009-14), the Supreme Court classified two of the most powerful gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, as terrorist organizations.

During the “truce”, the official homicide rate did go down, but critics argue that this was because gangs simply murdered more discreetly, burying victims in clandestine graves. The disposal of cadavers in secret locations is now well established…

ICMP participated on 14 October in a panel debate in Washington DC on tackling UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 (on Peace and Justice) in the digital age, focusing on innovations for Peace and Justice.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “Playing catch up with Silicon Valley – what needs to change in the coming five years”, ICMP’s Director of Science & Technology, Dr. Thomas Parsons, explored the challenges and the promise of integrating new technologies such as affordable real-time satellite imagery, access to social media and other forms of big data, and revolutionary DNA methods, to deliver concrete advances in missing persons registration and identification and mass grave discovery. Dr. Parsons also examined ways in which these can be applied to improve justice mechanisms, societal security, human rights and the rule of law.

The debate was hosted by the Hague Humanity Hub and the…

By Jacopo Guidi

Climate change has contributed to a destabilization of the global ecosystem, reflected in an increasing incidence of disasters such as typhoons and flooding. Terror attacks around the world have also increased the need for missing persons investigations, including measures to identify human remains in emergency circumstances. The initial emergency response to a disaster is key to saving lives and accounting for the missing. The extent of the damage and the area involved (think, for example, of a hurricane) or a lack of reliable information can make these crucial initial interventions chaotic and difficult to organize.

Over the course of 20 years, ICMP has developed an unrivaled range of expertise in responding to large missing persons scenarios. Since 2000 it has conducted the world’s largest missing persons DNA testing program, having…

Bojana Djokanovic analyzes the key role of gender perspectives in Colombia’s peace process.

The Colombian conflict started in the 1960s as a rural uprising for land rights that spawned the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Peace talks to end the longest -running conflict in the western hemisphere began in Havana in 2012 and have led to the warring sides reaching an understanding on peacebuilding measures that includes transitional justice, accounting for the disappeared and a plan for demobilizing the rebels’ estimated 7,000 fighters.

On 26 September 2016 the Colombian government, represented by President Juan Manuel Santos, and the FARC, represented by Commander-in-Chief Timoleon Jimenez, known as Timochenko, signed a historic agreement to bring an end to 52 years of conflict. However, on 2 October in a referendum in which the…

Matthew Holliday examines the evolution of a comprehensive missing persons strategy in Albania

Sulejman Mara died in 1954 in unknown circumstances at the infamous Burreli prison in Albania. He was 44. His body was never found. In post-World War II Albania, like so many others, Sulejman Mara was labeled an enemy of the proletariat – a persona non grata in a totalitarian state that zealously disposed of its enemies.

Today, Sulejman Mara is regarded as one of the politically persecuted. For Gentjana Sula, former Assistant Minister for Social Welfare and Youth, Sulejman Mara is the grandfather she never knew, a victim who deserves justice, a person whose fate – like that of thousands of others – must be elucidated, for the sake of his own family and for the sake of so many other families.

Romana Vlahutin, the EU Special Representative to Albania, understands only too well…

At the ICC-ASP Plenary Session on 18 November, ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger discussed the rule-of-law approach to missing persons and its significance in ICMP’s cooperation with the ICC and with national authorities, including investigating missing persons cases linked to war crimes.

The ICMP is active throughout the world. To date, it has assisted more than 40 countries with missing persons issues following armed conflicts, natural disasters, genocide and violations of human rights. ICMP cooperates with a large number of national and international institutions, including the ICC.