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The Hague, 8 September 2024 – At a two-day conference organized in The Hague by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), key stakeholders from the Iraqi government, civil society, and international organizations have renewed their collective commitment to continuing to build the National Committee on Missing Persons and supporting the creation of the National Central Record, both of which will fall under the Ministry of Justice.
The National Committee on Missing Persons was created by Ministerial Order No 199 on 31 January 2024 and is chaired by the Minister of Justice. Institutions holding responsibilities to account for missing persons are represented on the Committee. These include the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Human Rights, the Mass Graves Affairs Directorate of the Martyrs’ Foundation, the Medico-Legal Directorate of the Ministry of Health, in addition to representatives from the General-Directorate for Female Survivors of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the International Recommendations Coordination Office of the Kurdish Regional Government, representatives of the Supreme Judicial Council, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Displaced and Migration, the National Security Advisor, the National Security Agency, the National Intelligence Agency, the Popular Mobilization Forces, the Anti-Terrorism Unit, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), and the Political Prisoners Foundation.
The inaugural meeting of the National Committee on Missing Persons (NCMP) took place just before this conference, on 3 September.
Participants at the conference discussed measures to include consultative mechanisms for families of the missing, civil society organizations and international organizations in the deliberations of the National Committee.
Building on conclusions from previous policy discussions, including a high-level event held in The Hague in 2021 and follow-up meetings in Baghdad, Istanbul, and Erbil, participants at the two-day conference that ended on Friday agreed that further meetings will be necessary to make progress in building this new structure. Participants acknowledged that achievements to date are a good basis to build a sustainable process to account for all the missing in Iraq.
“The State is responsible for locating all missing persons regardless of the circumstances of their disappearance or the background of the missing person,” ICMP Director-General, Kathryne Bomberger stated during the meetings. “Iraq has exhibited the political will to address the issue and has made progress over the years. It is critical now that they consolidate these achievements and undertake measures to ensure the process is sustainable. The National Center is a step in the right direction.”
Alexander Hug, the Head of ICMP’s Iraq Program, noted that participants at the meeting had “taken important steps towards ensuring that families of the missing are supported and that national efforts are aligned with international best practice.” He added that, “the road ahead will require sustained effort and our collective cooperation to ensure that families of the missing are able to access their rights to justice, truth and reparations.”
“We attended the meeting in The Hague, organized in coordination with ICMP, to follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations of previous policy meetings,” said Dr. Hisham Al-Allawi, Deputy Minister for Political Planning Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The meeting brought together representatives from key government institutions dealing with missing persons cases as well as representatives from the governments of Germany and the Netherlands as key donors, in addition to civil society organizations. Discussions also addressed the mechanism of activating the newly established National Committee on Missing Persons headed by the Minister of Justice which includes all relevant institutions working on the missing persons file including representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government. The participants reached a number of agreed-upon conclusions, which were documented at the end of the meeting. The Iraqi government and ICMP will follow-up on the implementation of these conclusions.»
“The goal was to discuss the structure of the National Record on Missing Persons and reach conclusions,” said Yousif Abduljabbar Irhayf, Deputy Head of the Martyrs’ Foundation. “The meeting included representatives from relevant Iraqi institutions, including the Martyrs’ Foundation and several civil society organizations. We extend our gratitude to ICMP for its continuing support for Iraq on this important issue.”
ICMP remains dedicated to supporting Iraq in addressing the issue of missing persons, providing technical expertise and fostering transparency in the process. ICMP’s Iraq Program is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Government of the Netherlands.
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.
