The Hague, 30 June 2023 – On the occasion of its 27th anniversary, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) today published its Annual Report for 2022. The report, which can be accessed on the ICMP website, provides detailed information about ICMP’s programs and plans, as well as a comprehensive survey of missing persons issues around the world.
Highlights from ICMP’s operations in 2022 include new programs in Ukraine, Vietnam, Libya, the Caucasus, and Albania, with developments also noted in ICMP’s operations in Iraq, Syria-MENA, the Western Balkans, and Albania. During the year, work began on refurbishing ICMP’s Human Identification laboratory in The Hague, which serves as a strategic resource for governments around the world, with a standing capacity to process DNA samples at high volume. And two new Board members, Barbara Haering from Switzerland, and Thao Griffiths from Vietnam, brought the number of ICMP Commissioners up to eleven: five women and six men.
Former US Ambassador Thomas Miller, who served for more than a decade as ICMP Chair before stepping down in June this year, emphasized that ICMP ended 2022 “with a strengthened Board, with more programs, and with enhanced capacity”.
ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger noted that events around the world in 2022 “accentuated the need for missing persons processes that are supported by competent institutions and by civil society, that utilize the latest developments in forensic science and database technology, and that are embedded in the rule of law,” and she stressed that ICMP has the resources and the strategic vision that allow it to support such processes with targeted and effective programs.
The 2022 Annual Report can be read here.
About ICMP
ICMP is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization that seeks to ensure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, migration, and other causes, and to assist them in doing so. ICMP also supports the work of other organizations in their efforts, encourages public involvement in its activities and contributes to the development of appropriate expressions of commemoration and tribute to the missing.