What's In Blue

Posted Wed 14 May 2025
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Protection of Civilians: Briefing on Missing Persons in Armed Conflict

Tomorrow afternoon (15 May), the Security Council will hold a briefing on the implementation of resolution 2474 of 11 June 2019 concerning missing persons in armed conflict. The UK and the US requested the meeting. Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Mohamed Khaled Khiari and two civil society representatives are expected to brief.

Background

Resolution 2474 was penned by then-Council member Kuwait and adopted during the country’s June 2019 presidency. It reaffirmed the Council’s condemnation of the deliberate targeting of civilians and other protected persons in situations of armed conflict and called on conflict parties to take “all appropriate measures” to actively search and account for persons reported missing and to enable the return of their remains. The resolution listed several measures that contribute to preventing persons from going missing, including detainee registration, producing proper means of identification, providing training for armed forces, and the establishment of national information bureaux upon the outbreak of an armed conflict. It also reiterated the Council’s support for the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to access information about persons reported missing and called on parties to conflict to cooperate with the ICRC and its Central Tracing Agency in this regard. Additionally, the resolution requested the Secretary-General to include a sub-item on the issue of missing persons in his annual reports on the protection of civilians (PoC) in armed conflict.

In June 2024, the Council adopted a presidential statement taking note of the resolution’s fifth anniversary and calling for its effective implementation. Then-Council member Switzerland and The Global Alliance for the Missing—a coalition of 13 member states seeking to raise awareness about the issue of missing persons and separated families—also convened an Arria-formula meeting that month to mark the anniversary.

In its statement at the General Assembly’s inaugural meeting on missing persons held on 2 April—which General Assembly resolution 77/220 of 15 December 2022 mandated as a biennial meeting and briefing by the Secretary-General—the ICRC noted that it registered more than 56,000 new cases of missing persons in 2024. This is the highest increase in at least 20 years, resulting in a total of nearly 255,000 cases that the ICRC is actively following up. The organisation ascribed this growing trend to three factors: the sharp rise in armed conflicts worldwide, which now number over 120, nearly three times as many as in 2000; the routine violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in these conflicts; and the failure of peace processes to address the issue of missing persons, resulting in an accumulation of unresolved cases over decades.

Tomorrow’s Meeting

In his briefing tomorrow, Khiari is likely to express concern about the increase in missing persons in armed conflict. He may emphasise the importance of addressing impunity for enforced disappearances and strengthening compliance with the international legal framework governing this issue, which includes resolution 2474 as well as protections granted by IHL and international human rights law (IHRL).

One of tomorrow’s civil society representatives is expected to focus on persons who went missing during the Korean War. According to the Korean War Identification Project—a multidisciplinary initiative run by the US Department of Defense that works with the families of missing US service members to identify and return their remains—the US suffered approximately 36,500 fatalities during that conflict, of which over 7,000 remain unaccounted for. In this regard, the briefer may note the intergenerational trauma caused by long-term uncertainty regarding the fate of missing relatives, as well as the ongoing challenges faced by families seeking closure and recognition.

The other civil society representative is expected to focus on the hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. On Monday (12 May), Hamas released Edan Alexander, the last living hostage in Gaza with dual US-Israeli citizenship, whom the group abducted along with 250 others during its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. Of the 58 remaining hostages, over half are presumed to be deceased. In this regard, the civil society briefer may recall relevant provisions of resolution 2474, which urged parties to armed conflict to search for, recover, and identify the dead and to respect and return their remains. The briefer may also echo the joint statement delivered by the Global Alliance for the Missing at the Council’s June 2024 Arria-formula meeting, which highlighted the importance of the dignified treatment of the dead as “one key area in early response that can help prevent persons going missing”. The US is also expected to emphasise this point and may reiterate the call that it made at yesterday’s (13 May) Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza for Hamas to “return all living and deceased hostages without further delay, including the bodies of Americans”.

Speakers at tomorrow’s meeting may also refer to recent developments in other country situations on the Council’s agenda. On 30 April, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances published findings from its recent visit to Colombia, expressing concern that enforced disappearances in the country have continued since the signing of the 2016 Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace between the government of Colombia and the former rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP). In March, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published its latest report, which found that enforced disappearances committed by Russia in Ukraine amount to crimes against humanity. In February, the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic—which the General Assembly established in June 2023 to determine the fate and whereabouts of missing persons in Syria—visited the country for the first time following the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Other situations on the Council’s agenda in which the issue of missing persons remains a concern include Cyprus, Iraq/Kuwait, and Kosovo.

In addition to resolution 2474, some speakers may stress the importance of other international legal instruments to address the issue. In this regard, they may urge countries that have not yet done so to join the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. There are currently 77 states parties to the convention. Additionally, some speakers may welcome the decision of the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (which covers legal issues) in November 2024 to begin negotiations on an international convention to govern the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, which may include enforced disappearance.

Speakers are also likely to emphasise the need for appropriate national measures. According to the Secretary-General’s most recent report to the General Assembly on missing persons, dated 5 August 2024, such measures may include adopting national legislation clarifying the legal status of missing persons; strengthening the capacity of medical and legal institutions to document unidentified deceased persons; and establishing information bureaux as part of a “broader preparedness strategy” to prevent persons from going missing in armed conflict. Some speakers may also advocate for survivor-centred approaches in responding to the needs of missing persons and their families, including reparations and meaningful participation in truth and reconciliation processes. In this regard, some speakers may note that while most of the missing persons in armed conflict are men, the consequences have differentiated impacts on women and children, who often lead the search for their relatives and may face social stigma as well as legal obstacles in exercising their rights to health, education, and property.

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