Missing Persons in Armed Conflict: Advancing the Search for Answers.



The high-level event organized by the Permanent Missions of Croatia and Switzerland to the UN aims to facilitate a discussion and provide tangible proposals in the long-term quest of finding answers and revealing the fate of the missing.


Among many humanitarian tragedies of armed conflicts, the issue of missing persons stands out as an exceptionally protracted global menace. From Croatia, Ukraine, Colombia, Cambodia to the Sudan, the anguish and lack of closure for families and loved ones of the missing remain a particularly cruel and long-lasting consequence of war for decades. The search for answers and the truth is not only a legal obligation for States and parties to armed conflicts but also remains a moral duty of affected societies, the international community and humanity itself.

The discussion should aim to explore how to further secure the implementation of existing norms of international humanitarian law related to information gathering about those missing in armed conflicts, as well as the retrieval of the remains of those who have died and reflect on improving accountability for related violations and taking appropriate and proportionate measures to prevent and address the harmful consequences of misleading and inaccurate information on the fate of missing persons.

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