The Hague, 6 December 2024 – The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) facilitated discussions this week in The Hague, the Netherlands, to strengthen measures for a safe and functional system to find missing persons in Syria. The meetings were designed to enhance cooperation among governments, Syrian civil society organizations (CSOs), and international agencies to find more than 150,000 Syrians and non-Syrians missing in Syria, as well as Syrian refugees missing along migratory routes.
From 4 to 5 December, ICMP hosted the 13th meeting of the Data Governance Group (DGG) for Syria, which brought together Syrian data partners to enhance measures to adhere to best practice in data collection, management and protection. Thus far, data has been collected from more than 75,000 relatives of the missing. Participants discussed the establishment of the ICMP Committee on Data, which will consist of families of the missing and be referenced in personal data collection and processing consent forms.
On 6 December, ICMP held an Interagency Roundtable, bringing together international agencies and Syrian families and CSOs to discuss measures for a safe and functional data coordination system that allows comprehensive access to missing persons data while safeguarding family and witness privacy. The roundtable examined how data management systems can be structured to ensure efficient data categorization, collection, and protection, with input from families and civil society. The discussion also highlighted the need to enhance the capacity of Syrian organizations to document missing persons cases to international legal standards, ensuring that information that is gathered is admissible in legal proceedings.
“The Syrian conflict and ongoing crisis have been referred to as the best documented conflict in modern times. Over the last decade, Syrian organizations have collected large quantities of data on those who have gone missing. In many cases this data has been obtained at great risk,” the Director -General of ICMP, Kathryne Bomberger said. “The creation of the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria, which has not yet begun operations, presents an opportunity to look into this issue in more depth, which is what we hoped to achieve through these meetings.”
Data collected thus far in Syria has largely focused on reporting and analyzing human rights abuses and other atrocities that cause persons to go missing; recording names, locations and circumstances of disappearances, along with additional information that may help to identify possible perpetrators. This has been done by collecting data directly from families of the missing or from witnesses, and by triangulating open-source information and satellite/aerial imagery. These efforts have focused on missing persons inside Syria, with little effort to collect data on Syrians who have gone missing along migratory routes to Europe and beyond.
Efforts to locate Syrians missing along migratory routes and as a result of human trafficking were also discussed, with an emphasis on integrating refugee data in the system in order to enhance coordination and information-sharing across borders.
In addition to the more than 150,000 people believed to be missing as a result of the conflict, Syria has a legacy of missing and disappeared persons cases linked to human rights abuses and other causes prior to the conflict, as well as the thousands who have fled the fighting and have gone missing along migratory routes.
Data coordination is a key component of laying the foundation for a sustainable missing persons strategy for Syria that is impartial, credible and transparent. It is also key to securing the rights of families of the missing to justice, truth and reparations.
Working with families of the missing and with governments to develop an effective system to find missing Syrians, ICMP has collected data from more than 76,200 relatives from Syria who have reported more than 28,200 missing persons. ICMP has also received reports concerning the location of 66 sites of mass graves in addition to two detention sites, through ICMP’s Online Inquiry Center (OIC) Site Locator.
These initiatives are supported by the United Kingdom and Germany, key partners in ICMP’s Syria/MENA Program.
About ICMP
ICMP is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization that seeks to ensure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, migration, and other causes, and to assist them in doing so. ICMP also supports the work of other organizations in their efforts, encourages public involvement in its activities and contributes to the development of appropriate expressions of commemoration and tribute to the missing.