In July 2018, ICMP produced a document outlining strategic measures for an effective missing persons process in Iraq. These options were developed during workshops with representatives of Iraqi institutions and civil society in 2019 and 2020. Iraqi government representatives discussed a final draft five-year strategy based on the options, at a conference hosted by ICMP in The Hague from 28 August to 1 September 2021.

At the 2021 conference, consensus was reached on 12 conclusions that form the basis for a comprehensive strategy, include creating a central mechanism and adopting a national plan, improving data management and data protection, ensuring state funding for the process, strengthening the role and capacity of civil society, upholding the rights of survivors, particularly women and bringing perpetrators to justice.

ICMP proposes the following steps to be discussed by Iraqi institutional representatives and Iraqi civil society to develop such a strategy.

• Strive to create a central mechanism to coordinate the missing persons process
• Enhance planning at all levels, including through the adoption of a national plan or strategy
• Ensure that the activities of a central mechanism are inclusive across Iraq, working in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government
• Continue and enhance funding from the State to the relevant national institutions and encourage continued participation and support of the international community
• Improve data management, including through a central record that would be established through law or executive decision as required.* Acknowledge the critical importance of data protection and the need to protect data with respect to the relevant national law and international conventions ratified by Iraq, including the right to privacy of the families of the missing
• Ensure the participation of civil society and the families of the missing, as this is central to finding all missing persons
• Strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations in their work with families of the missing and in building bridges with government authorities
• Acknowledge the adoption of the Yazidi Female Survivors Law or any other law that might replace it, thereby ensuring that the specific rights of women survivors are secured, given that the majority of the missing are men, which leaves a disproportionate number of female survivors, many of whom become heads of household
• Enhance efforts to bring perpetrators to account in accordance with Iraqi law and to enhance cooperation with judicial authorities in other countries, so that justice can be achieved and the rights of victims are secured required (It should be noted that at the 2021 conference in The Hague, the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government expressed a reservation about this conclusion.)
• Strive to ensure that Iraq accedes to the ICMP Treaty;
• Ensure a high-level meeting with relevant institutions in Iraq within the next six months.

*It should be noted that at the 2021 conference in The Hague, the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government expressed a reservation about this conclusion.)