International Commission on Missing Persons

18 November 2009: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) welcomes the adoption of the Law on Homage to Disappeared Persons and Other Measures for their Search and Identification, which was adopted yesterday by the Colombian Congress.

“This law is an important step forward in the search and identification process and the development of appropriate expressions of commemoration to the missing in Colombia,” said Ms. Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP’s Director-General. “The law strengthens the process of genetic identification, and provides for protection of a victims’ genetic information.  It also includes measures for protecting the integrity of unidentified remains and for the protection of places of clandestine burial.”

13 November 2009: The Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Dusanka Majkic, visited the international headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo.

The Deputy Speaker met with ICMP’s Director-General, Ms. Kathryne Bomberger, and discussed areas of mutual interest and concern regarding the issue of missing persons, including the process of locating, recovering and identifying missing persons, the rights of families of the missing and the Missing Persons Institute for Bosnia and Herzegovina. She…

12 November 2009: Representatives of the Government Commission on Detainees and Missing Persons of the Republic of Croatia, the Government Commission on Missing Persons of the Republic of Serbia, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and representatives of Family Associations of Missing Persons from Croatia and Serbia met this week in Osijek, Republic of Croatia.

10 November 2009: Thirty students from the Law Faculties of the Universities of Mostar, Banja Luka and Sarajevo visited the facilities of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Tuzla today.

The delegation, which saw law students from each of Bosnia’s main universities joined together in one party, visited ICMP’s three forensic facilities in Tuzla; the Podrinje Identification Project, the Lukavac Re-association Centre and the Identification Coordination Division (ICD).  ICMP constructed the first two projects specifically to assist in the identification of victims of the 1995 fall of Srebrenica, while ICD exists as ICMP’s worldwide centre for the processing of information about missing persons. The students also received briefings on the work of the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia-Herzegovina (MPI), as well as a presentation on the implementation of the…

6 November 2009: Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, The Right Honourable David Miliband MP, visited the international headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) today as part of a visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina, praising the organisation’s support to international and regional justice.

29 October 2009: The Spanish Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, His Excellency Senor Alejandro Enrique Alvargonzalez San Martin, visited the forensic facilities of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Tuzla. The Ambassador was accompanied by a delegation from The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID).

14 October 2009: The German Government has provided 500,000 Euros to the International Commission on Missing Persons demonstrating its continued commitment to the process of recovery and identification of persons missing in the Western Balkans. In a separate grant agreement the German Government will, for the first time, support ICMP’s programs in Iraq with a contribution of some 700,000 Euros for the period to the end of 2010.  This brings to almost 3,150,000 EUR the total amount of funding committed by the German government to ICMP.

13 October 2009: A high-level delegation of 8 Iraqi experts working on the issue of missing persons in Iraq visited the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) at its headquarters in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 4th^th to 9^th October, 2009.  The visit was funded by the British Government through its Embassy in Baghdad.

2 October 2009: Representatives of missing persons institutions of the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia met yesterday at a meeting of a Regional Working Group hosted by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). This was the second working meeting of this Working Group consisting of representatives of the Missing Persons Institute (MPI) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), the Commission for Missing Persons of the Republic of Serbia (RoS) and the Commission for Detained and Missing of the Republic of Croatia (RoC). The meeting was also attended by a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

30 September 2009: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) hosted a visit to its facilities in Tuzla by a high-level delegation of EU Ambassadors, diplomatic staff, military and police officers led by H.E Bosse Hedberg, Sweden’s Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sweden currently holds the presidency of the European Union and is also a major donor to ICMP.