The discussion combined perspectives from international law, humanitarian action, and public policy, reiterating the need for multilateral action by states and institutions to address the growing crisis of the missing.
Notably, the Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law, launched in 2024 by the ICRC and six founding states – and now supported by 106 countries – includes recommendations to prevent people going missing in armed conflict and to ensure their families receive answers.
The panel noted that humanitarian forensics, too, plays an important role in providing such answers. In the case of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), two missions carried out in 2017 and 2021 by the ICRC and supported by the governments of Argentina and the UK led to the identification of 121 individuals killed in conflict.
To this day, however, the number of people missing in relation to conflict continues to rise. Spoerri explained that in 2025 the ICRC recorded over 178,300 new cases of missing persons – the sharpest rise in at least two decades. “Behind each one is a family living in anguish and uncertainty, with a right to know what happened to their loved one,” he said.
“This is not just a moral imperative but a legal duty: under international humanitarian law, states and parties to conflict must prevent people from going missing and account for those who do. This is also critical to achieving lasting peace and reconciliation. The ICRC, together with the British Red Cross and the wider Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, works to help restore family links and provide answers for families with missing loved ones.”
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