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.