Full text in PDF format - International Committee of the Red Cross

Missing Persons
In the Americas, there are countless
people whose relatives have
disappeared in an armed conflict or
a situation of internal violence. As
long as they do not know whether a
missing person is alive or dead, they
cannot mourn the death of their
loved ones. This makes it difficult
for them to resume their ordinary
lives, and hampers the processes of
adjustment and reconciliation both
at personal and community level.
Want of political will among the authorities
concerned, as well as lack
of cooperation by those who might
convince them to take action, hinder
the efforts aimed at prevention and
clarification. Competent authorities
have a shared responsibility to adopt
measures in order to prevent the disappearance
of persons and face the
consequences thereof, possibly with
the aid of national and international
humanitarian organizations.
The inertia or inefficiency in solving
the problem of missing persons
has led the ICRC to take action. It
seeks to obtain from the authorities
that they do respond to the problem,
assume their responsibilities
to clarify the fate of missing persons,
to assist their families and to
prevent disappearances. This effort
consisted in extensive consultations
with government and non-governmental
experts. The results were
included in a detailed report which
identifies specific recommendations
on the measures that need to
be implemented to put an end to
the problem of the missing. States
Parties to the Geneva Conventions
and members of the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
endorsed these recommendations
at the XXVIII International
Conference of the Red Cross and
the Red Crescent held in Geneva,
Switzerland in December 2003, and
committed to attaining a number of
goals based on these recommendations
within a period of four years.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning
that the General Assembly of the
Organization of American States
adopted two resolutions - AG/RES.
2134 (XXXV-O/05 and AG/RES.
2231 (XXXVI-O/0 )- in 2005 and
200 , which urge the States Parties
to take specific steps at the national
level in order to prevent disappearances,
find out the fate of missing
persons and assist their families.
At the national level, the following
efforts are specially worth noticing:
• Colombia: The Government
drafted a public policy proposal on
the issue of forced disappearances.
In turn, and given the large number
of common graves, the National
Commission for the Search of Missing
Persons disclosed a National
Plan for the Search of Missing Persons.
Finally, it is worth noting that
the issue of missing persons is a
key concern for the National Reconciliation
Commission, created
under the 2005 Law No. 9 5, called
Justicia y Paz (“Justice and Peace”).
This became readily apparent in
Boris Heger/CICR
19
Report on the Participation of the States in the Relevant Treaties Concerning
International Humanitarian Law and its National Implementation