Matthew Holliday

International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)

Established in 1996 by President Clinton at a G-7 Summit in Lyon, France, ICMP is an international organization which specializes in assisting governments and others address the issue of missing persons from armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime and other causes. It is the only international organization which works exclusively on the issue of missing persons and as such it has helped governments to build rule-of-law institutions that successfully and impartially search for and identify missing persons. ICMP is best known for its pioneering use of modern DNA techniques to identify over 19,000 persons who went missing from different locations and circumstances globally. ICMP has developed a forensic data management system (fDMS) to record and share information on all aspects of the missing persons' process. ICMP works with civil society organizations, particularly associations of families of the missing enabling them to become active participants in the process of clarifying the fate of their loved ones. This work is achieved through collaborative transitional justice and civil society projects to build the capacity of these organizations and to influence closer working relationships and trust with relevant government authorities. The ICMP is funded by a core group of 27 governments and is currently providing assistance to Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, South Africa, Libya, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Iraq. ICMP collaborates with the following organizations: NTERPOL: Assisting countries in disaster victim identification following disasters. The current agreement has enabled ICMP to assist large number of countries over the last 10 years. International Organization for Migration (IOM): To cooperate on the global issue of persons missing as a result of migration. United Nations: ICMP works with various UN agencies to address missing persons issues from a variety of causes.