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The Hague, 6 September 2024: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) facilitated a week-long working meeting for Ukrainian experts in facial comparison and facial recognition techniques in The Hague this week to review current practices and offer recommendations in line with best international practice for enhancing processes and quality assurance.
This week’s meeting was organized in cooperation with the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise (SRIFE) under Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice and included practitioners from the SRIFE, the Kharkiv State Scientific and Technical Institute and the State Scientific Forensic Research Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The meeting was led by ICMP’s Head of Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology, Soren Blau and Forensic and Biometric Consultant Reuben Moreton. A guest presentation was also provided by John Riemen (Lead Biometric Specialist and Manager of the National Criminal Automated Biometric Identification System, Dutch Police).
“Forensic institutions in Ukraine have had to develop and expand effective identification techniques to address the huge missing persons challenge facing the country as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion and they have had to do this against the backdrop of a conflict,’ said Soren Blau. ‘Facial comparison and recognition are valuable tools to triage cases that can be implemented as part of a comprehensive and effective missing persons process.”
“One cannot possibly underestimate this experience”- Nataliia Zubova, a participant from Ukraine.
“We received a lot of information which will be extremely useful” – Yevhen Tymko, a forensic expert from Ukraine.
This week’s meeting included a review of test cases and best practice in forensic face examination, as well as quality management, forensic training, and the use of biometrics, including biometrics software.
ICMP’s Ukraine Program is supported by the European Union and the governments of Canada, Germany, Norway, and the United States. Under the program, ICMP is supporting laboratory operations to help Ukraine account for tens of thousands of missing persons; it is helping the authorities to undertake data collection campaigns and mass grave investigations, and it is working with civil society and families of the missing to ensure their effective participation in the missing persons process. ICMP has signed agreements with the responsible ministries and government agencies in Ukraine and has developed a five-year strategy to help the authorities account for the large and growing number of missing persons.
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.
