A) Objetivos de la promesa
Currently, thousands of individuals are reported missing worldwide due to armed conflicts, which continues to deepen the suffering of affected families. Globally, it is estimated that over 100,000 people are missing as a result of conflicts, forced displacements, and state actions, according to data from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
In Africa alone, the ICRC has registered over 71,000 cases of missing persons as of 2024, showing a dramatic 75% increase in just five years due to ongoing violence and migration. Meanwhile, in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, approximately 23,000 individuals are missing, further complicating humanitarian efforts to locate and reunite families. In Gaza/OPT, Israel and Lebanon, the ongoing conflict has led to thousands more missing.
In armed conflicts, under customary international humanitarian law, each party to the conflict must take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing as a result of armed conflict and must provide their family members with any information they have on their fate. This is motivated by the right of families to know the fate of their missing relatives. In situations of international armed conflicts, this right is enshrined in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocol I.
The pledging parties commit to:
- identify avenues for and strengthen the cooperation and coordination between national authorities, the RFL network of the RCRC Movement and other relevant stakeholders to prevent disappearances, elucidate the fate of missing persons and help their families in both, situations of armed conflict as well as in peace time;
- identify concrete channels of communications with the concerned families regarding the fate of their deceased family members;
- make an inventory of existing mechanisms at a national level verifying whether the different needs (humanitarian, governmental, judicial and non-judicial) of missing persons and their families are covered;
- develop and/or establish mechanisms in order to facilitate the collection and transmission of information about the fate and whereabouts of missing/deceased/wounded/captured/detained to the appropriate authorities and families of missing, as well as (in case of an international armed conflict) to the National Information Bureau;
- identify and, as far as possible, develop recommendations and offer solutions to any legal, administrative or factual gaps that might be hindering activities in this respect.
B) Plan de acción
Proposed evaluation criteria (in 2028):
- A common working group of the pledging parties (as well as potentially other relevant stakeholders) has been established and a joint plan of action has been adopted;
- The pledgers have carried out a mapping of the current situation as regards the prevention and response to cases of missing persons in times of peace or armed conflict leading to a better understanding of the process of how missing/deceased are registered, identified and buried respectively how missing persons are found and reunited with their families.
- The pledgers will also evaluate how the relevant authorities, the National Information Bureau and their families are informed and who is responsible for the different tasks;
- The pledgers have subsequently developed potential ways of collaboration between authorities in charge and RCRC National Societies.
C) Indicadores para medir los avances:
- Twice /year meetings between the working group participants and potentially other concerned stakeholders
- Workflow identification procedures for the search and identification of missing persons at the national level in peaceful as well in armed conflict situation
- Mapping of the responsible authorities and/or other stakeholders for the management of missing/dead/wounded and their communication with families of missing
- Development of guidelines and/or recommendations/good practices.
D) Recursos requeridos:
Two meetings per year + organisation