GLOBAL REPORT ON MISSING PERSONS 2021 GLOBAL REPORT ON MISSING PERSONS 2021 Authors Noor Hamadeh Alicia Decker Charlotte McDonald-Gibson Arely Cruz Santiago Baik Tae-Ung Melanie Klinkner Publisher International Commission on Missing Persons For the Publisher Kathryne Bomberger Reviewers Eric Stover Nadim Houry (Middle East and North Africa) Melanie Klinkner (Middle East and North Africa, Americas) Sharon Nakandha (Africa) Paula Gaviria (Americas) LeAndra Nephin (Americas) Alessandra La Vaccara (Indicators) Sanji Monageng (Africa) Editor Andreas Kleiser Associate Editor Kevin Sullivan Citation Editor Kerri Lee Coleman Graphic Design and layout Maricarmen Rubí Baeza ISBN 9789083152417 This publication reflects the views of the author alone and not necessarily those of ICMP and the Global Report. Only contents not signed by authors may be attributed to the organization. Cover image by Jana Romanova, Building a Monument, Creative Court, The Hague 2020 – from the collective project Parts Unknown https://parts-unknown.co/ This publication has been made possible through the generous support of the United Kingdom. Foreword This year we are marking the 25th anniversary of the of the circumstances of the disappearance of the missing International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). person is an indispensable investment in peace, and in The organization was established at the initiative of US human development and societal well-being. President Bill Clinton during the 1996 G-7 Summit in Lyon, France, with a mandate to secure the cooperation of I am honored to introduce this first edition of the Global governments and assist them in locating missing persons, Report, which will now be published annually. It will enable originally following the wars in the former Yugoslavia. the development of approaches and methodologies that reinforce, and where necessary rebuild confidence in public This mandate, to ensure governmental cooperation and governance. It will deepen understanding of underlying assist governments in their efforts, may seem unremarkable problems and it will enhance abilities to define practical today, but at the time it was innovative: it reflected a new responses. Last but not least, the Global Report will fulfil understanding of the necessity of official and effective a crucial function by providing benchmarks, examining investigations of persons going missing and disappearing. standards and exploring political and geographical This was different from what had existed before and in dimensions of persons going missing and disappearing, at other parts of the world. Working with the rule-of-law the global, regional and national levels. institutions of states – courts, law enforcement and other specialized public law agencies – reinforces the credibility The first Edition of the Global Report examines the broad of these institutions and the public trust in them. This is range of underlying causes of disappearances and the distinct from the often strictly humanitarian approach that possible reasons for a failure to investigate missing persons had been customary until then. cases, such as the deleterious impact of institutionalized discrimination and xenophobic trends including in the It is an approach that has been shown to work. In the former world’s leading democracies, where accountability and Yugoslavia by 2009, ICMP had helped the responsible state respect for human rights and the rule of law are heralded as institutions to account for around 70 percent of the 40,000 the cornerstone of systems of government. and elsewhere. missing persons from the conflicts of the 1990s. ICMP’s It discusses how irregular migration in the Mediterranean, mandate to support the investigative obligations of public Central America and East Asia represent a significant and as authorities also allowed it to assist justice processes for war yet unaddressed challenge to states, in terms of fulfilling crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. ICMP has their obligations to advance social cohesion and uphold been active in more than 40 countries, in conflict and post- human rights. It covers the issue of disappearances in the conflict situations and also where large numbers of people context of violent conflicts in Africa and South Asia, as well have gone missing for other reasons such as disasters, as crime and political repression. organized crime and irregular migration. This edition of the Global Report is the beginning of what In 2014, a group of states took the decision to establish ICMP is intended to be a process of sustained and applicable as an intergovernmental organization with headquarters in research. Future editions will examine a wide range of The Hague – and we look forward to more states joining this focus areas related to this global challenge, many of which effort, to which the recent accession of Afghanistan in 2019 have until now received very little attention. This includes and Germany in 2021 may serve as an inspiration. the link between disappearances and sexual violence, which all of the Chapters in the present edition identify The Global Report on Missing Persons, which is published as a driver of disappearances and a phenomenon that with the support of the United Kingdom, examines how must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Through this the issue of missing persons is being addressed around the process, a series of Indicators on Missing Persons will also world. Among other things, this inaugural edition explores be developed: this an important research area that is still human rights and rule-of-law perspectives on the issue, in the early stages and for which the present edition of the reflecting a general consensus that effective investigations Global Report lays a solid foundation. under the law play an essential role in countering revisionism, advancing social cohesion and strengthening human security. This in turn means that State responsibility in finding all missing and disappeared persons, regardless of their social or economic status, their race or creed, their gender or sexuality, their political beliefs or any other factor, Rt. Hon. Alistair Burt and securing the human rights of all survivors, regardless Member of the ICMP Board of Commissioners GLOBAL REPORT 2021 • 3 Table of Contents ABBREVIATIONS 7 INTRODUCTION 11 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 16 INTRODUCTION 16 PART 1: MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND LEGAL CONTEXT 16 PART 2: SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT: DISAPPEARING POLITICAL DISSIDENTS 17 Disappearances Following Public Protest 17 Targeting Human Rights Defenders and Journalists 18 Government Response 18 PART 3: CONFLICT-RELATED DISAPPEARANCES 19 Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians 19 Targeting Civilian Dissidents 19 Families of Those Missing During Conflict 20 Government Response 21 PART 3: MISSING MIGRANTS 22 Mediterranean Migration Routes 22 Intercepting Migrants and Refugees in Countries of Transit 23 Locating and Identifying Remains of Missing Migrant and Refugees 24 Transnational Cooperation 24 Civil Society Support 24 PART 4: ACCOUNTABILITY 25 Addressing Enforced Disappearance 25 Post-Conflict Mechanisms 25 Government Institutions 26 Civil Society and Family Associations 27 PART 5: THE GENDERED IMPACT OF MISSING AND DISAPPEARED PERSONS 27 Missing and Disappeared Women 28 Female Relatives of Missing Persons 28 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 31 AFRICA 33 INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL AND LEGAL CONTEXT 33 Historical Context 33 Legal Context 35 PART 1: ARMED CONFLICT AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM 38 PART 2: ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE AND ILLEGAL DETENTION 40 PART 3: MIGRATION 42 PART 4: HUMAN TRAFFICKING 44 CONCLUSION 46 Recommendations for Governments 47 EUROPE 50 INTRODUCTION 50 Historical Context 50 PART 1: MIGRATION 52 CASE STUDY 55 GLOBAL REPORT 2021 • 4 PART 2: TRAFFICKING AND ORGANIZED CRIME 57 PART 3: WAR, POLITICAL UNREST AND OPPRESSION 59 CASE STUDY: MH17 61 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 62 AMERICAS 66 INTRODUCTION 66 PART 1: THE DISAPPEARED. LATIN AMERICA AS A SITE OF INNOVATION 66 Case study: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the development of the “grandpaternity index” 67 Transition of enforced disappearances and the emergence of new forms of violence by new actors 69 Disappearance of women in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua 70 The “War on Drugs” 71 The role of families 72 Case study: Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos, CADHAC. Citizens in Support of Human Rights A.C., CADHAC 73 Case study: Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en Nuevo Leon, FUNDENL. United Forces for our Disappeared in Nuevo Leon, FUNDENL 74 Colombia and Operation Cirirí 75 PART 2: MISSING MIGRANTS ALONG THE MEXICO-US CORRIDOR 77 Case Study: Colibrí Center for Human Rights 79 Case Study: Proyecto Frontera (Border Project) 79 PART 3: MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE US AND CANADA 80 Families’ expertise: “When an Indigenous person goes missing, those closest to her are the experts”. 81 “The National Inquiry as a beginning, not the end” 82 An agenda for the future 82 ASIA AND PACIFIC 84 INTRODUCTION 84 PART 1: CONTEXTS AND PATTERNS OF MISSING PERSONS CASES AND DISAPPEARANCES IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 85 Domestic and international conflicts, civil wars, and other military activities 85 Counter-terrorism, internal security, and political instability 85 Non-State actors 86 Migration and human trafficking 86 Covid-19, tsunamis, natural disasters, and other public emergencies 86 Other patterns of missing persons cases and disappearances, and government efforts 87 PART 2: SELECTED COUNTRY SITUATIONS