📑 Five priority areas of action for missing persons (Part II) - Project Milkbox 🥛

In order to respond to the problems linked to the disappearance of persons, a group of remarkable people identified five areas of action at the International Conference of governmental and non-governmental organizations on missing persons, held in Geneva from February 19 to 21 of 2003, by the invitation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. These five areas have been taken up by other international instances

II. Find out what happened to people reported missing

• It's primarily the responsibility of the State authorities to give information about the persons considered missing. They should investigate cases of disappearance. It is necessary that criminal proceedings provide for sanctions in case of failure to comply with court decisions regarding the disclosure of evidence, and that any deliberate destruction of evidence is subject to criminal sanctions. All appropriate means should be provided to obtain information on behalf of missing persons and their families from state authorities and organized armed groups, including holding state authorities responsible when they obstruct access to information or give inaccurate information.

• It is important to ensure that the issue of missing persons is not forgotten at a national and international level. For example, peace agreements should systematically include specific mechanisms designed to find out what happened to the people reported missing.

Example of an international mechanism: the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

Created in 1980 with a "humanitarian" role, the Group has been assuming more and more functions.

By adopting the "Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances", it was charged with ensuring that States comply with the obligations arising from that text. Within the framework of its "humanitarian" function, it has a clarification procedure whose objective is to find out the whereabouts of the disappeared persons. Within the framework of its control of the Declaration, the Group ensures that States comply with their obligations and makes general observations, as well as recommendations to States.

• Most situations require the existence of multiple mechanisms
  (humanitarian, governmental, judicial and non-judicial), communicated between they respecting the respective mandates, in order to cover all the needs of families and communities. These mechanisms should not be imposed from the outside; they must be independent and impartial in their approach and in their working methods.

• The mechanisms should be complementary; they should coordinate their activities and exchange information about people reported missing, respecting the rules on the protection of personal data and the respective mandates. In each country, a centralized database should be created on all persons reported missing; a single institution should be in charge of administering it and processing all the information collected following agreed norms.

Example of a national mechanism: the Institute for Persons Disappeared in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Institute for Missing Persons, jointly founded by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the International Commission on Missing Persons, is the national institution responsible for ascertaining what happened to people reported missing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, for means of the location, exhumation and conservation of human remains, as well as the examination, identification, collection, processing and protection of information.

The Institute for Disappeared Persons must also collaborate with the relevant authorities and judicial systems, in particular with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The ICRC contributes fully to the functioning of the Institute, to which it provides legal, technical and financial support; In addition, it cooperates with the Bosnian Red Cross Society.

Main source: https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/icrc_002_1117.pdf
Funds for this posts will be used to support different Red Cross initiaves and missing persons organizations.