[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4344 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4344
To authorize the Secretary of State to assist the International
Commission on Missing Persons to establish a permanent and
international legal status with the immunities required for operations
globally, to continue the financial support of the United States of the
ICMP in their work to assist governments and other authorities in
locating and identifying persons missing as a result of conflicts or
natural or man-made disasters, to support the investigation of genocide
and mass atrocities, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 30, 2012
Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Turner of Ohio, Mr. McIntyre,
and Mr. Moran) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of State to assist the International
Commission on Missing Persons to establish a permanent and
international legal status with the immunities required for operations
globally, to continue the financial support of the United States of the
ICMP in their work to assist governments and other authorities in
locating and identifying persons missing as a result of conflicts or
natural or man-made disasters, to support the investigation of genocide
and mass atrocities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``International Commission on Missing
Persons Assistance Act of 2012''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The issue of persons missing from war, violations of
human rights, natural disasters, and other involuntary reasons
represents a global challenge that affects the United States.
Every year an estimated 150,000 persons go missing from natural
disasters alone, and globally there are currently over a
million reported cases of persons missing from wars and
violations of human rights. In addition there are thousands of
reported cases a year of persons missing from trafficking, drug
related violence, and other causes.
(2) There continues to be a need, therefore, for an
organization with a global reach to assist governments in
locating persons who are missing for a myriad of involuntary
reasons. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)
is the only organization in the world that has been developed
to meet this global need. It has 15 years of experience in
assisting governments locate persons missing from wars, human
rights abuses, and natural disasters, and there is an
increasing demand for ICMP to assist in other missing persons'
scenarios, such as, for example, trafficking and drug related
violence.
(3) Since the ICMP was created at the initiative of the
United States in 1996 at a G-7 Summit to address the issue of
persons missing from the conflicts of the 1990s in the former
Yugoslavia, the ICMP has developed a unique, DNA led process
that has led to the identification of over 18,000 individuals.
(4) At the ICMP's founding, the Department of State
facilitated obtaining a headquarters' agreement with Bosnia and
Herzegovina that provided ICMP with privileges and immunities
so that it could carry out its work, which was to secure the
cooperation of governments in locating and identifying missing
persons from the conflicts. In its headquarters' agreement,
ICMP is recognized as an organization equivalent to an inter-
governmental organization.
(5) ICMP's model requires governments to take
responsibility for clarifying the fate of missing persons via
governmental and rule of law mechanisms. In doing so,
governments build public trust in rule of law institutions,
seek to account for all regardless of their status or role in
conflicts, and fulfill their obligations to surviving families
of the missing.
(6) ICMP works closely with associations of families of
missing persons, developing their capacity to take an active
role in the missing persons' process, including holding
governments to account and encouraging cooperation across
ethnic or sectarian divisions.
(7) ICMP's work in post-conflict societies supports efforts
to prevent future conflict and directly contributes to truth
and reconciliation. ICMP also provides evidence including
testimony in courts prosecuting war crimes.
(8) ICMP also assists countries facing large scale loss of
life following natural or manmade disasters. With the highest
throughput identification laboratory system in the world and
unparalleled experience in the management of mortal remains,
ICMP has become INTERPOL's primary partner in Disaster Victim
Identification (DVI).
(9) ICMP's operational success has exceeded all
expectations and its law-based approach that includes the
judiciary and affiliated domestic legal services has been
extended to Colombia and Iraq. ICMP has also provided technical
assistance to Chile and South Africa on conflict and human
rights' cases and the United States, Thailand, and the
Philippines following natural disasters, such as Hurricane
Katrina.
(10) In the intervening years there has also been increased
demand for ICMP's work to address other cases of missing
persons, including persons missing from trafficking, drug
related violence and to other missing persons' scenarios.
(11) Currently ICMP, through an agreement facilitated by
the Department of State in 1997, has such a status in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, thus, for example, allowing it to maintain and
protect a database that contains 150,000 genetic profiles. In
two years' time, ICMP will experience a situation of
diminishing resources on its assistance in the Balkans, which
could have continued political consequences on its work if it
maintains its headquarters and capacities in that region.
However, moving ICMP's headquarters and technical capacities
from Bosnia and Herzegovina would have immediate consequences
on ICMP's ability to maintain some of its current core
technical activities.
(12) ICMP is not incorporated under the domestic law of any
country, and is by implication not a nongovernmental
organization. In order to carry out its work, ICMP has been
granted the status of a quasi-international organization with
international legal capacities in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia,
and Serbia. However, that status is not universally recognized,
which has led to an unclear legal situation outside these
countries.
(13) Certain immunities are required for operations
considering that ICMP operates on sovereign territory in crime
scenes (such as mass graves) and holds considerable quantities
of confidential genetic information relating to victims of
human rights' abuses and their surviving relatives.
(14) A series of meetings convened by the ICMP during 2002
and 2004, with government representatives from the United
States, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom,
reviewed the ICMP's work and its need for a permanent and
internationally recognized legal status. The representatives
produced a draft framework agreement, which remains unratified,
but the government representatives did agree to expand ICMP's
work, thus allowing it to work globally in assisting
governments, and the representatives also stipulated that ICMP
should extend its activities to include assistance to
governments in locating persons missing from natural disasters,
as well as from wars and violations of human rights.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the United States should continue to support the work
of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to--
(A) clarify the fate of persons missing as a result
of conflict and natural and man-made disasters; and
(B) collect and maintain sensitive genetic
information for victim identification;
(2) the United States should continue to support the
expansion of the ICMP's mandate to include assistance to
governments in locating all persons missing for involuntary
reasons;
(3) the President should enunciate a clear policy of
assisting the ICMP in establishing a permanent and
internationally recognized legal status to carry out its
mandate globally; and
(4) the Secretary of State shall make every effort to
advance this proposal at the United Nations.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress a report on the
activities carried out in accordance with section 3.
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