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13 June 2024, Warsaw – Leading Ukrainian and international DNA scientists participating in a workshop organized by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) have discussed strategies for the further development of a DNA-led process to account for the tens of thousands of people who are missing as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Speakers at the two-day event that concluded today in Warsaw highlighted the need to expand the networking capacity of laboratories and mortuaries in Ukraine so that data can be shared efficiently and securely. They also stressed the importance of interaction among forensic and judicial experts and raised the possibility that foreign experts could be authorized to take part directly in Ukrainian missing persons investigations.
Although Ukraine has a well-developed network of DNA laboratories and a cadre of highly qualified forensic scientists, identification protocols are still substantially geared towards the needs of the pre-war criminal justice system. A DNA-led strategy to account for the huge number of people missing as a result of the war would require a comprehensive campaign inside and outside Ukraine to gather blood and saliva samples from relatives of missing persons. DNA profiles extracted from these samples would then be compared with profiles taken from unidentified human remains or from people – including children – who have been displaced by the invasion and are unable to identify themselves.
At this week’s conference, senior representatives of Ukrainian agencies responsible for DNA identification explained the measures that have already been implemented to adapt the existing laboratory system in response to the invasion, and expressed a willingness to learn more about innovations developed elsewhere. International experts described in detail how DNA-led identification programs are being carried out successfully in other countries.
Natalia Tkachenko, Director of the Department of Expert Support at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, said the number of missing persons reports continues to rise every day. “We are facing more and more challenges and we understand the need to find alternative ways, to make use of different approaches,” she said. Ms Tkachenko commended ICMP for the support it has provided since the beginning of the conflict, to help Ukraine develop a sustainable missing persons process.
ICMP Director of Science & Technology Ingo Bastisch said the objective of this and future workshops is “to build a community of practice that can support missing persons investigations in Ukraine and establish protocols that lead to identifications and that make it possible to prosecute perpetrators.” He said the exchange of information between international and Ukrainian experts “can increase the scope for developing alternative tools.”
This week’s workshop was the second in a series of meetings on Ukraine being organized by ICMP. A roundtable held in Kyiv on 29 May examined the legislative and institutional framework for accounting for missing persons, and a roundtable to be held at ICMP Headquarters in The Hague next week will examine steps that can be taken to account for children who are missing as a result of the invasion.
ICMP’s Ukraine Program is supported by the European Union and the governments of Canada, Germany, Norway, and the United States.
About ICMP
ICMP is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization with Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. Its mandate is to secure the co-operation of governments and other authorities in locating persons missing as a result of conflicts, human rights abuses, disasters, organized violence and other causes and to assist them in doing so.
