8 May 2014: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) expresses its deep concern over the fact that more than three weeks have passed since 276 Nigerian students were abducted on 14 April 2014 by a militant group in this country. ICMP is therefore calling on the Nigerian authorities to immediately take effective measures to remedy the situation by ending this ongoing crime against humanity.

According to reports, school girls were taken away at gunpoint by a militant religious fundamentalist group Boko Haram who are opposed to girls’ education. The number of abducted girls had risen last week when new abductions took place. However, the authorities of the state of Nigeria have yet to organize a substantial effort aimed at locating and liberating its missing citizens.

Nigeria is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that places obligations on the State to ensure the realization of the rights set forth therein, including children’s right to life, development and education. Nigeria is also a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibiting inter alia the sale of children.

ICMP also calls on other States, as well as on the international criminal justice system, to turn their urgent attention to this issue to enable effective investigations into the fate and whereabouts of the missing school girls.

ICMP is an international organisation with 18 years of experience in assisting governments and others address the issue of missing persons from armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime and other causes. The ICMP is the only specialized international organization of its kind that addresses this issue of missing persons in all of its facets.