A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

• The Government of Liberia should ensure that
information in TRC archives is made accessible
to the Liberian public and to relevant nongovernmental
organizations for purposes of family
tracing as well as locating the dead. In this effort,
the Government of Liberia should coordinate
closely with the International Committee of the
Red Cross, the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees, and victims’ groups both in Liberia and
in the diaspora.
• The Government of Liberia should take “all
necessary measures to trace and re-unite children
with parents or relatives where separation is caused
by internal and external displacement arising from armed conflicts or natural disasters.” 20
• The Government of Liberia should take all necessary measures to facilitate and expedite
family reunification and “actively encourage the work of humanitarian organisations engaged
in this task.” 21
• In order to facilitate unification, the Government of Liberia should promptly issue passports
or other travel documents at no cost or a reasonable cost. 22
• The Government of Liberia should prioritize assistance for vulnerable groups such as
unaccompanied children, unaccompanied elderly, handicapped, and chronically ill, as well as
meet specific needs of unaccompanied women and single heads of households. 23
• The Government of Liberia should develop and implement policies that promote family
reunification of non-Liberians who may be in Liberia as a result of the widespread subregional
conflict in West Africa.
• The Government of Liberia should utilize available media resources such as national radio
and/or television stations to provide families or individuals searching for a missing relative
the opportunity to send out a search notice.
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Chapter Fourteen
Potential Implementation Strategy:
Refugees United
The Government of Liberia and the
Liberian Refugee Repatriation and
Resettlement Commission may wish
to coordinate with Refugees United, a
nonprofit organization that provides
a free web-based service for refugees
to find family members who are
dispersed globally. See http://www.
refunite.org/31914/.
Potential Implementation Strategy: The International Commission on Missing Persons
The Government of Liberia may wish to collaborate with the International Commission on Missing
Persons (ICMP) which provides technical assistance in locating, recovering, and identifying the mortal
remains of persons missing because of armed conflict, crimes against humanity, and other violations
of human rights. ICMP assists governments in the process of locating, recovering, and identifying
these missing persons through the use of forensic archaeology, anthropology, and DNA science. In
Bosnia, for example, almost 12,000 different individuals have been identified. ICMP provides policy
assistance to governments in the establishment of appropriate laws and mechanisms to address the
missing persons issue, and it strengthens the ability of civil society groups and family members of
victims to engage in this important humanitarian and human rights issue. See http://www.ic-mp.org/
about-icmp/.