Delite
Baghdad, 26 September 2024: The Government of Iraq has adopted conclusions aimed at continuing developing an effective, long-term missing persons process. Large numbers of people are missing in Iraq due to prolonged conflicts and human rights violations, including atrocities committed during the former regime, atrocities committed by Da’esh, and wars with neighboring countries.
The conclusions developed and adopted by the Government encompass ten measures to strengthen Iraq’s efforts to build a sustainable missing persons process, based on the recently established National Committee on the Missing, chaired by the Minister of Justice. These conclusions are the result of a two-day conference held in The Hague earlier this month facilitated by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). The conference brought together representatives of the federal and regional governments of Iraq, and Civil Society Organizations working on the issue of missing person in Iraq. ICMP remains committed to provide support to the Iraqi government in implementing the conclusions.
The conference conclusions are as follows:
1. Representatives of the relevant Iraqi institutions informed the participants in the meeting about the productive cooperation between their institutions and ICMP and expressed their appreciation for the financial support of the international donors to account for missing Persons.
2. The participants welcomed the inaugural meeting of the recently established National Committee of Missing Persons (NCMP), through a ministerial order, chaired by the Iraqi Minister of Justice and held in Baghdad on 3 September 2024. Participants acknowledged the need for further efforts to fully activate the Committee.
3. The participants welcomed the fact that the NCMP is inclusive, incorporating all relevant institutions, including representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
4. The participants recommend the NCMP consider establishing working groups to address matters that require further cooperation. This includes, inter alia, supporting the establishment of provisional offices and the adoption of a national strategy.
5. The participants emphasized the importance of continued coordination between relevant Iraqi institutions on data management and integration to establish a National Central Record. They stressed the need to streamline procedures for families through designated institutions in alignment with national laws.
6. The participants stressed the importance of increasing support for the NCMP to obtain the necessary resources for its functioning and sustainability.
7. The NCMP formulates specific requests for tailored support and funding to effectively carry out its duties.
8. Participants highlighted the need to provide training for technical staff from all institutions concerned in data entry and institutional linkage mechanisms.
9. The participants recommended that the NCMP should work with representatives of relevant international organizations, civil society organizations, institutions or individuals, as necessary.
10. The participants stressed the importance of implementing the recommendations from previous policy meetings, such as those held in The Hague (2021), Baghdad and Istanbul (2023) and Erbil in 2024.
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.
ICMP’s Iraq Program is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Government of the Netherlands.
