Kuwait clinched this week the unanimous support of all 15 UN Security Council members on the first-ever resolution on missing persons in armed conflicts.
The Council’s presidency is held by Kuwait for the month of June, its second such role before the end of its term in holding the non-permanent Arab seat on the council this year.
Resolution 2474 calls upon parties to armed conflict to take appropriate measures to prevent persons from going missing, to pay the utmost attention to cases of children reported missing as a result of armed conflict, and to take appropriate measures to search for and identify those children.
The Resolution was passed during a Council meeting chaired by Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.
“Today’s adoption will give impetus to Council efforts on protection of civilians over the past 20 years,” he said.
The Resolution urged parties to armed conflict to search for and recover the dead as a result of armed conflict, identify them, including by recording all available information and mapping the location of burial sites, to respect the remains of the dead.
It also reiterates the Council’s support for the efforts of the ICRC in seeking access to information on persons reported missing and calls on all parties to armed conflict to comply with their commitments in respect to access and to cooperate with the ICRC in addressing the issue.
Peter Maurer, President of the ICRC, told the Council that more than 45,000 people were registered as missing by the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency.
Reena Ghelani, Director for Operations and Advocacy of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, recalled that in Syria, more than 10,000 cases of missing persons have been opened by ICRC.
Resolution 2474 encouraged UN member states to increase their voluntary financial, technical training and logistical assistance for states in support of exhumation and identification process relevant to the search for missing persons.
