Cooperation Mechanisms
Multilateral Forums and Intergovernmental Bodies
ICMP develops and facilitates multilateral cooperation among governments on shared missing persons challenges. For example, in the Western Balkans, ICMP facilitates cooperation through the Missing Persons Group to find those still missing from the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. In the context of Missing Migrants and Refugees in Europe, ICMP has facilitated the work of the Joint Process for countries in the Mediterranean. ICMP also launched an intergovernmental mechanism for Syria in 2019, which includes countries from the MENA region and others in Europe that are hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees, to explore shared challenges and find shared solutions to support the effort to account for missing persons from the Syrian conflict.
Interagency Committee on Missing Persons
In 2016, ICMP launched the Interagency Committee on Missing Persons (IAC) at the UN Security Council in New York. The IAC brings together international and other organizations with a public mandate concerned with the issue of missing persons. Cooperation with international and other organizations is central to ICMP’s global strategy. It is a key element in discussing data sharing modalities, in particular concerning cases of unidentified human remains, and missing persons reports by families, in order to develop interagency solutions. Participating organizations include the European Commission, EUROJUST, EUROPOL, the ICC, the ICRC, INTERPOL, the IOM, UNHCR and UNICEF.
Civil Society Forums
Regional Coordination Network of Families of the Missing (Western Balkans)
Associations of families of missing persons from the former Yugoslavia gathered in the Regional Coordination in 2005 to lobby jointly for the resolution of missing persons issues. This process was strengthened through the establishment of the Regional Coordination Network in March 2022. The Regional Coordination Network brings together family associations of missing persons from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia in a mechanism in which all families and all associations have equal rights and duties.
Policy Coordination Group (Syria)
The Syrian-led Policy Coordination Group (PCG) is facilitated by ICMP and was launched following a conference organized by ICMP in the Hague in February 2020. The PCG members include Syrian family associations, Civil Society Organizations, legal and human rights defenders, and scholars. The group produces policy papers designed to shape a framework for a future process to account for missing persons.
Committee on Data
The Committee on Data oversee the processing and protection of personal and related data, in addition to providing an appeals instance for data subjects and third parties.
It is composed of six members disposing of broad specialist expertise in the field of data processed by ICMP for diverse purposes, including accounting for missing persons, providing evidence in judicial proceedings, transparency, and disseminating data to the public. The members of the Committee are:
- Prof. Jay D. Aronson, founder and director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is Professor of Science, Technology, and Society.
- Prof. Roger Brownsword, King’s College London and Bournemouth University, who has published extensively on data law, technology, and governance, and who was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Chair of UK Biobank’s Ethics and Governance Council.
- Mr. Hadi al Khatib, founder of the Syrian Archive and Managing Director of Mnemonic.
- Prof. Kate Mackintosh, Executive Director and Professor from Practice at The Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe) of the University of California, Los Angeles.
- Mr. Guillen Torres Sepulveda, Open-Source Investigations Specialist at the Human Rights Center’s (HRC) Investigations Lab of the University of California, Berkeley.
- Dr. Cristina Teleki, of the European Centre for Privacy and Cybersecurity (ECPC). Prior to joining the ECPC, she worked at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
