International Commission on Missing Persons

The Hague, 11 July 2019:  Twenty-four years after the Srebrenica Genocide, it is essential to continue efforts to account for those who are still missing and to bring those who were responsible to justice, International Commission on Missing persons (ICMP) Director-General Kathryne Bomberger said today.

ICMP scientific data concerning persons missing from the fall of Srebrenica has been admitted in evidence at trials before the ICTY and courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To date, 20 individuals have been tried at the ICTY for crimes related to Srebrenica. Of these, 15 have been convicted. The BIH State Court has put 56 individuals on trial for crimes related to Srebrenica of whom 37 have been convicted.

For more than two decades, ICMP has led the effort to account for those who went missing during the conflict and to uphold the rights of families of the missing, regardless of national, ethnic or religious affiliation.

Convicting…

Sarajevo, 4 July 2019: A dedicated meeting on accounting for persons missing from the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia was held today in the framework of the 6th Berlin Process Summit in Poznan, Poland.

Last July, at the 5th Berlin Process Summit in London, the leaders of the 14 participating countries (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo^*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) signed a Joint Declaration asserting the need to intensify multilateral cooperation to locate and/or identify the 12,000 persons who are still missing from the conflicts as an important measure to ensure peace and stability in the region.

In the last two decades, by ensuring the cooperation of the relevant post-conflict governments, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) spearheaded a regional effort that has made it possible to account for 28,000 of the 40,000 people who were missing…

The Hague, 17 June 2019: The International Commission on Missing Persons brought key international organizations together at its Headquarters in The Hague today to take part in a consultative roundtable on next steps in the Joint Process to Account for Persons Missing as a Result of Migration in the Mediterranean Region. 

In June last year, at a conference organized by ICMP in Rome, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta asserted their intention to develop a Joint Process to coordinate their responses to the issue of missing migrants. The Joint Process countries held their second meeting on 13 June at ICMP Headquarters in The Hague. 

At today’s roundtable, ICMP presented the findings of the survey it carried out, as part of the Joint Process, at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 to assess the scope and extent of investigatory capacities…

13 June 2019: Meeting at the Headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in The Hague today, representatives of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Malta participated in the second meeting of the Joint Process to further discuss cooperation on addressing the large number of people who continue to go missing on Mediterranean migration routes despite a reduction in the number of migrants arriving in Europe.  

Despite the decrease in the number of arrivals in Europe, more than 500 persons are reported to have died or to have gone missing in the Mediterranean region since the beginning of 2019. Globally, since 2014, more than 31,000 persons have been reported missing or deceased along migratory routes.  

Having met for the first time in Rome on 11 June 2018, the government representatives at the second meeting of the Joint Process discussed an…

The Hague, 23 May 2019:  Syrian organizations participating in a roundtable on the issue of missing persons from the conflict in Syria have highlighted the need to harmonize their efforts to advocate for unified policy positions on the issue of missing and disappeared persons from the Syrian conflict and to build cooperation between families of the missing, regardless of communal or national background.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) organized the three-day conference at its Headquarters in The Hague this week to provide families and civil society organizations (CSOs) with a forum to articulate their needs and discuss effective advocacy to uphold families’ right to truth, justice and reparation. The roundtable examined the issue of Syrians who have been detained inside the country without access to family or legal representation, the need for an independent, impartial and centralized database that will enable a systematic effort to locate and identify…

The Hague, 7 May 2019: Germany’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dirk Brengelmann, has accepted an invitation to become a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). Ambassador Brengelmann will take up his position forthwith and will participate at the annual meeting of the Board of Commissioners at ICMP Headquarters in The Hague in mid-June.

“I am very honored by and accept the invitation of ICMP to participate in their work as Commissioner.

I have had a chance to observe ICMP activitie‎s for quite some time now and I am impressed by their engagement and commitment. I am looking forward to cooperating with my fellow Commissioners in this important endeavor,” Ambassador Brengelmann said.

“We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Brengelmann,” the Chair of ICMP’s Board of Commissioners, Thomas Miller, said today. “ICMP has worked with the German Government on a number of programs around the world and engages on a range…

Zagreb 18 April 2019: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has convened the second meeting of the Missing Persons Group (MPG). The group consists of senior representatives of the institutions responsible for missing persons issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia and has a role in supervising operations under the Framework Plan signed in November 2018 in The Hague.

Matthew Holliday, the Head of ICMP’s Western Balkans Program, highlighted the fruitful cooperation of all the representatives participating in the meeting. Noting that trust among stakeholders in the region is essential to account for the estimated 12,000 missing persons cases that are still outstanding, he said, “with financial support from the United Kingdom Government we will continue to work with government institutions and with family associations to enhance regional cooperation in order to identify as many as possible of those who are still missing. All the parties…