The International Committee of the Red Cross has launched a major initiative to highlight the problem of the missing during armed conflict or internal violence. A conference on the subject in February produced a series of recommendations including:

• To affirm the importance of international standards regarding the deprivation of liberty and the notification of families.
  
  
• To encourage governments and armed groups to allow independent investigations to be carried out to clarify the fate of people unaccounted for.
  
  
• Setting up mechanisms to respond to the needs of the families of the disappeared.
  
  
• Making sure that families receive as much information as possible from criminal investigations related to the missing.
  
  
• Improving methods of collecting, sharing, and classifying information, and in particular increasing the possibility of getting information to family members.

Full details of the conference and the initiative are available from the International Committee of the Red Cross website.

The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross also addresses the issue of people missing in armed conflict or internal violence. The journal includes articles on the missing and international humanitarian law; the psychological problems faced by the families of the missing; the relationship between the procedures of war crimes tribunals and the needs of the victims families; and developing standards in forensic work to identify victims.

See also the chapter ‘Disappearances’ in Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know.