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Human
Rights & Social Justice
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Nepal:
Families of missing persons have a right to know
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ICRC,
30 August 2008
On
the International Day of the Disappeared (30 August 2008), the International
Committee of the Red Cross is appealing to the government of Nepal to clarify
the fate of those who went missing during the country's 10-year internal
conflict.
The
ICRC and the Nepal Red Cross Society are publishing the names of more than
1200 people reported as missing by their relatives between 1996 and 2006.
"Publishing
the names of these 1227 people has two main aims," says Mary Werntz, head
of the ICRC delegation in Kathmandu. "First, it seeks public recognition
for the families of the missing and acknowledgement of their suffering
and needs. Secondly, the publication constitutes an appeal to the government
of Nepal to clarify the fate of those who went missing during the conflict
and to meet the immediate needs of their families."
The
ICRC and the Nepal Red Cross Society have been supporting the families
of missing persons since 1999. In February 2007, the ICRC published its
first list of 812 missing persons. This resulted in 33 families learning
the fate of their relatives and more families contacting the ICRC, thus
making the second published list even longer than the first one.
It
is imperative," says Werntz, "that the authorities establish mechanisms
to resolve the legal problems faced by the families of the missing persons
and to support them in overcoming their loss. One frequent problem is that
women cannot inherit the property of the person who has disappeared, as
the missing person has not been declared dead."
People
in Nepal are not alone in suffering the agony of uncertainty when relatives
disappear during conflict or violence. All over the world, hundreds of
thousands are unaccounted for. The ICRC has received tracing requests from
thousands of families in many conflict-affected countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Iraq, Liberia,
Sri Lanka and the Russian Federation. International humanitarian law requires
that authorities do all they can to inform families about relatives who
have disappeared. Through its work, the ICRC encourages States to make
this a priority and to pass information rapidly to families, who otherwise
endure a limbo of uncertainty.
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| Source:
International Committee of the Red Cross 2008 |
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ICRC
and the Nepal Red Cross Society
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