يشارك
The Hague, 30 August 2025: Around the world today, governments and organizations will join families of the missing to mark International Day of the Disappeared.
“The number of missing people is rising – as a result of climate change, and geopolitical instability and the erosion of the rule of law in international relations,” Kathryne Bomberger, the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), said today. However, she said that governments “are beginning to use the tools at their disposal to account for those who have disappeared,” adding that “We are facing a serious crisis but we have the resources – and in many places the political will – to address this crisis.”
In a statement published today, Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP Director-General, and Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, the head of Syria’s new National Commission for Missing Persons, review the fundamental principles that support effective missing persons strategies. They highlight the fact that “In the last quarter of a century, countries have developed effective strategies to locate and identify the missing, and they have engaged civil society as a whole to sustain long-term programs that work through mass participation and that are supported by dedicated laws.”
As Jalkhi and Bomberger point out, “A swathe of legal instruments underpin States’ obligations to conduct effective investigations. The right to life in particular rests on the procedural guarantee that possible abuses will be officially investigated. This means that families of the missing have the right to full and effective investigations.”
To mark International Day of the Disappeared, ICMP has worked with partners to organize commemorative events in Kyiv, Dnipro and other cities in Ukraine, where the authorities are developing an integrated system to account for tens of thousands of missing as a result of the Russian invasion, including 20,000 children illegally deported to Russia.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, ICMP joined a range of events, including one in Tuzla, where families of those who are still missing from the conflict of the 1990s organized a rally that was addressed by representatives of the government and the Missing Persons Institute (MPI). Next week, ICMP will join the Missing Persons Institute of BIH at the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina at an event to mark MPI’s 20th anniversary of establishment. Across the Western Balkans, more than 10,000 of the 40,000 who were missing at the end of the conflict have still not been accounted for.
In Albania, on 28 August, ICMP, in cooperation with the Authority for Information on Documents of the Former State Security, organized an event at Luigj Gurakuqi University of Shkodra, where research on disappearance and memorialization was presented.
ICMP has also launched social media campaigns highlighting the struggles of families of the missing and the responsibility of states. “Today’s events are a call to action,” Ms Bomberger said. “Throughout the world, families of the missing are coming together to exercise their rights. This is not a hopeless cause but a realistic demand for truth, justice, and reparations. Through coordinated strategies, the truth can be found, justice can be delivered, and reparations can be secured. Families are entitled to our solidarity and support, not just today but every day.”
Coinciding with International Day of the Disappeared, ICMP and its partners have developed and released a range of communications initiatives highlighting the experiences of families of the missing around the world:
- Around the world: Voices of Families of the Missing: We Are Rights Holders: Featuring family members from Ukraine, the Western Balkans, Iraq, and Syria, this video emphasizes the rights of families to truth, justice, and accountability, giving voice to their experiences across regions.
- Institutional voices worldwide stood with families of the missing on the International Day of the Disappeared, highlighting state responsibility and state obligations.
- Iraq: A video documenting ICMP’s participation at a ceremony marking the return of human remains of Yazidi victims of ISIS in August 2026. The video includes testimonies from families and statements from institutions working on identification and accountability.
- Syria: International Day of the Disappeared: Supporting Syria’s Families of the Missing video featuring Hanadi Alloush from Damma Women’s Association, speaking about the struggles of families of the missing in Syria, and highlighting the responsibility of state authorities.
- Ukraine: Tell Us Your Story: A Women’s Chronicle of the Missing presents the stories of women searching for loved ones in the wake of Russia’s invasion. Mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters speak about loss, perseverance, and collective action to uncover the truth. This booklet amplifies their voices and their refusal to give up hope.
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. Created at the 1996 G-7 Summit to address the issue of persons missing as a consequence of the conflicts in the Western Balkans, ICMP has been working globally since 2004.
