Institutional Development

Building Domestic Capacity

Mechanisms to ensure the cooperation of governments and others in addressing the issue of missing persons vary depending on:

  • The nature and circumstances of the disappearances;
  • The willingness of state authorities or other relevant parties to address the issue;
  • The domestic legal context;
  • The engagement of families of the missing and other members of civil society; and
  • Support from the international community. 

Regardless of the circumstances under which a person goes missing, ICMP’s assistance and work to support capacity building are aimed at creating law-based, sustainable structures that are transparent and accountable to stakeholders.

Conflict and Human Rights Abuses

ICMP provides assistance to a government following armed conflict or human rights abuses, fostering political will to address the issue is often difficult. 

ICMP works in post-conflict settings to encourage state authorities to take responsibility for accounting for missing persons. ICMP’s approach is based on the fundamental premise that states are responsible for accounting for the missing and must fulfil this legal obligation. Acknowledgement and acceptance of this by states will inculcate broader societal engagement, contribute to ending the cycle of violence and will remove obstacles to future economic development. 

ICMP’s approach in post-conflict settings, or where human rights abuses have occurred, includes the development of: 

  • State structures that demonstrate the willingness of the state to deal with past or on-going atrocities in a non-discriminatory, law-based manner;
  • Purpose-specific legislation and legislative amendments that protect families of the missing and uphold their rights;
  • Specialized war crimes and human rights capacities to investigate and prosecute cases;
  • Transparent, impartial and reliable information– sharing mechanisms between authorities and families of the missing, and the public;
  • The use of forensic methods to locate, recover and identify the missing; and
  • The use of forensic evidence in criminal trials;
  • The active engagement of families of the missing and society at large.

Examples of such assistance include the creation of: 

Natural and Manmade Disasters

When ICMP provides assistance following disasters, it either directly enters into agreements with the authorities, or provides assistance under cooperation agreements with other international organizations.

Examples of direct assistance to the authorities include ICMP’s cooperation with:

Since 2007, ICMP and INTERPOL have worked together on the basis of a Cooperation Agreement on Disaster Victim Identification. The Agreement was invoked for the first time in 2008 to assist the Philippines following Typhoon Frank. Subsequently, ICMP worked with INTERPOL in Kenya in 2013 following the Westgate shooting incident, and in the Philippines, following Typhoon Hiyan in 2013. 

Other Circumstances

ICMP is using its experience to address the issue of persons missing as a result of other causes, such as migration, displacement, and organized crime, including human trafficking and drug related violence. In 2013, ICMP signed a Cooperation Agreement with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) focused on persons missing as a result of migration and displacement. In 2018, ICMP initiated a Joint Process under which countries came together to identify gaps and future steps in accounting for missing migrants in the Mediterranean region. 

 

Primary menu pages

Scroll to Top