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Geneva, 25 March 2026 – A panel discussion held this week on the margins of the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council at the Palais des Nations in Geneva reinforced the importance of international cooperation, legal accountability, and inclusive approaches to the issue of missing persons. The conference addressed the rising number of missing persons cases worldwide, with a particular focus on Syria and Ukraine, where the number of missing is currently in the region of 300,000 and 90,000 respectively.
Discussion focused on States’ human rights obligations towards missing persons and their families, with particular attention to accountability, effective investigations, and the rights to truth and remedy. Speakers emphasized that resolving cases is not only a humanitarian imperative but also a fundamental component in securing justice and restoring geopolitical stability. Topics covered included legal frameworks, operational challenges, and best practice. Speakers highlighted ways in which States can meet their obligations by conducting prompt, independent, and effective investigations, closing documentation gaps, ensuring access to information, and maintaining international cooperation.
The event was organized by the Permanent Missions of Costa Rica and Sweden, and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), with the support of co-sponsoring Permanent Missions of Norway and Finland. Participants included policymakers from national and international institutions, technical experts, and civil society representatives.
Speakers included Sweden’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Magnus Hellgren; the representative of the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica, Roberto Céspedes Gómez; ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger; Dr. Grażyna Baranowska, Professor of Migration Law and Human Rights at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; Valentyna Akulenko, from Ukraine’s Office of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances; Member of the Syrian National Commission on Missing Persons Advisory Team, Amneh Khoulani; the Head of the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria, Karla Quintana; and the Head of the Voyatsky Vyzvil association of families of missing persons from Ukraine, Nataliia Yepifanova.
This event was made possible through generous funding from NORAD and the German Federal Foreign Office (FFO).
About ICMP
ICMP is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization with Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. Its mandate is to secure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, migration, and other causes, and to assist them in doing so.
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