International Commission on Missing Persons

The Hague, 21 June 2018: In Attard, Malta, today, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Ms. Kathryne Bomberger discussed the issue of missing Mediterranean migrants, with particular emphasis on missing child migrants.

Ms Bomberger briefed President Coleiro Preca on the outcome of meetings organized by ICMP in Rome on 11 June to address the issue of missing migrants in the Mediterranean region. At the inaugural meeting of the Joint Process to account for missing migrants, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta agreed to coordinate their efforts and explore ways of sharing information and pooling resources systematically. At a roundtable discussion after the inaugural meeting, technical experts from the Mediterranean countries and international organizations examined how the Joint Process can be taken forward. At a “Profiles of the Missing” forum organized by ICMP at the Swiss Embassy in Rome the same evening, those who…

Rome, 12 June 2018: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) convened a meeting in Rome on Monday afternoon to ensure cooperation between international organizations and European countries in addressing the issue of missing Mediterranean migrants.

The roundtable with international organizations followed a meeting earlier in the day at which government representatives from Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta asserted their intention to develop a Joint Process to coordinate efforts to address this issue. The government representatives agreed that ICMP would help facilitate this process.

Representatives from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Frontex, Interpol, Europol, OHCHR, the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI), and the ICRC participated in the roundtable, which was designed to ensure that the Mediterranean countries receive support in addressing this issue.

The issue of missing migrants concerns those who have died as well those who have disappeared but who may still be alive.  In 2017, more than…

Rome, 11 June 2018: Families of missing migrants in the Mediterranean region participated in an event titled “Profiles of the Missing: the Journey to Europe and the Rights of Missing Migrants,” organized by the International Commission on Missing Persons and hosted by the Swiss Embassy in Rome today.

The families, together with policymakers and international organizations working on the migration issue, shared their experiences and developed recommendations on effective efforts to account for missing migrants. They also called for the rights of families of the missing to be upheld.

Family members described their experiences, and their response to personal loss, as well as their continuing efforts to find their relatives. They also spoke of…

Rome, 11 June 2018: Representatives of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Malta met at the Villa Massimo in Rome this morning at the invitation of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). Participants at the meeting asserted their intention to develop a joint process aimed at enhancing cooperation among European and other States to account for migrants who have gone missing or who have died in the Mediterranean region.

“Locating and accounting for missing migrants requires effective administrative and investigatory cooperation among States, including coordinating existing capacities, in particular to improve the utility of available data and to source technical capabilities,” participants said in a statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting. “It is also necessary to coordinate efforts more…

The Hague, 31 May 2018: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the Embassy of Switzerland will organize a “Profiles of the Missing” event in Rome on 11 June.

Profiles of the Missing is a public forum that brings together families of missing persons to examine core elements of the missing persons issue, raise public awareness, make recommendations, and demonstrate to policymakers that this issue is an indispensable element in addressing regional security, conflict-prevention, peace building and international justice. The active participation of surviving relatives of the missing is central to the Profiles approach.

The Profiles of the Missing event on 11 June in Rome will examine current approaches to accounting for persons missing as a result of migration in the Mediterranean region. It will follow a series of meetings in Rome designed to launch a multilateral initiative to tackle this issue.

Her Majesty Queen Noor, who has been an ICMP…

Podgorica, 26 May 2018: Stakeholders in the missing persons process across the Western Balkans met in Podgorica from 23 May to 26 May 2018 to prepare for an upcoming summit in London that will address key challenges facing the region, including how to address the issue of the 12,000 persons who are still missing from the conflicts of the 1990s. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Republic of Croatia which, as a full member of the European Union, supports the Berlin Process.

On 9/10 July, the United Kingdom will host the 5^th Berlin Process Western Balkans Summit. Among other issues, the UK has indicated that making progress on the issue of…

The Hague, 9 May 2018: Mr Rüdiger Kȍnig, Director-General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited the International Commission on Missing Persons today, together with Gräfin Verana von Roedern, Minister Counsellor at the German Embassy in The Netherlands.

ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger briefed the visitors on key ICMP programs that are supported by Germany, and highlighted programs, such as ICMP’s Center for Excellence and Training (CET) and its Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) platform, for which ICMP is seeking international support. The CET and DVI platform are designed to operate as global resources to help countries implement effective strategies to account for missing persons.

Germany has supported ICMP’s program in the Western Balkans since 2001, making it possible to account for more than 70 percent of those who went missing during the conflicts of the…

Sarajevo 9 May 2018: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) today submitted 13 new DNA match reports to the BIH Missing Persons Institute. The DNA profiles were processed at ICMP’s new laboratory system at its Headquarters in The Hague.

“ICMP completed its laboratory transition at the end of December 2017 and the new laboratory became fully operational in record time,” the Head of ICMP’s Western Balkans Program, Matthew Holliday, said today. “ICMP continues to provide uninterrupted access to DNA testing and matching of biological samples submitted by BIH authorities at no cost to BIH, as it has done since 2001. There has been no change to ICMP’s assistance to BIH since ICMP moved its headquarters to The Hague.”

ICMP became a treaty-based inter-governmental organization in 2014 and in line with the new Agreement on ICMP’s Status and Functions, it moved its headquarters to The Hague. ICMP’s headquarters include its DNA…