Every year on 30 August, the world marks the International Day of the Disappeared. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, due to the armed conflict that began in 2014, the number of people who disappeared during the hostilities, including in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, is constantly growing.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, as of May 2023, about 23,000 people have been officially confirmed as missing under special circumstances as a result of hostilities.
Back in 2018, the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Status of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances" was adopted. This Law, revised after the start of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine, established guarantees for the search for missing persons, protection of their relatives, and provision of social support. In addition, this Law created the position of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances within the Ministry of Reintegration, and stipulated that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is responsible for launching the Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances.
Despite the existence of a special law, for more than five years the system of protection of persons who went missing under special circumstances, as well as their families, has been far from perfect.
Families of those who went missing in special circumstances face a lack of proper communication with the investigator of the relevant police unit in charge of the case of their loved one's disappearance. Such communication is especially complicated after the criminal proceedings are transferred under territorial jurisdiction to the police departments of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, where there are thousands of cases of missing military personnel. The overload of investigators also leads to untimely and improper submission of DNA profiles from relatives of a missing person to the DNA database to establish whether or not they match posthumous DNA samples whose profiles are included in the general DNA database.
Since the launch of the Unified Register of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances (since May 2023), families of missing persons have faced the inability to obtain a proper extract from the register due to the lack of information about their missing loved one. This, in turn, leads to the inability to exercise the right to social protection of the relatives of the missing person.
Under the current circumstances, when relatives of disappeared persons need state support, it is especially important to communicate with relatives of the disappeared persons, to provide them with information about the stage of the search for their loved ones, about their guarantees and rights. Therefore, the activities of the Ombudsman for Missing Persons are very important. In fact, the Ombudsman and his regional representatives have become active communicators, analysts responsible for proper interaction between the families of persons missing in special circumstances and the state bodies and institutions responsible for searching for such persons, as well as resolving other related issues.
However, on 10 August 2023, the media reported that the position of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances had been abolished. The Ministry of Reintegration explained that the position of the Commissioner would not be abolished, but that an interagency meeting in the Government discussed the transfer of the function of the Commissioner from the Ministry of Reintegration to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defence and the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
However, the reasons for this decision have not been publicly provided. What is presented as an "interagency redistribution of functions to improve work efficiency" will in practice lead to the absence of a single authorised coordinating body. This is unlikely to facilitate the tracing (search) of the disappeared or ensure better communication with their relatives.
It is important to note that the decision to "redistribute" the functions of the Commissioner for Missing Persons was made without consulting with organisations of relatives of missing persons. The dispersal of the functions of the Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances between law enforcement and military bodies, which by definition (and especially in wartime) are not and cannot be open, creates a risk of deterioration of the situation with the protection of missing persons and their families. In addition, there are significant questions about the compliance of the proposed redistribution of powers with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Status of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances".
The issue of tracing (searching) for persons who disappeared during the armed conflict is a matter of international humanitarian law, which protects the right of families to know the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives. Therefore, the state must make every effort to prevent the disappearance of people, search for missing persons and overcome the consequences of such events.
The Coalition "Ukraine. Five in the Morning" coalition calls on the authorities to fully implement the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Status of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances" and to take a balanced approach to the issue of redistributing the functions of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances. Such a redistribution should be justified, accompanied by appropriate amendments to the relevant law, and include the identification of an entity responsible for maintaining constant communication with the relatives of missing persons in the context of armed aggression against Ukraine.
30.08.2023
