The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the international community not to forget missing persons worldwide, including those in Sri Lanka.
"States have an obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible measures to clarify the fate and whereabouts of people who have gone missing and to inform their families accordingly," said the vice-president of the ICRC, Christine Beerli.
Stating that the ICRC was working on the cases of 52,000 missing persons worldwide, staff member Marianne Pecassou said:
"This figure is just the tip of the iceberg, since these cases are only the ones brought to the attention of the ICRC by relatives. We know that many more people remain unaccounted for around the world."
The statement which was published ahead of a new report - 'Living with Absence: Helping the Families of the Missing' - to be published August 30 to mark International Day of the Disappeared, states that 16,000 are missing in Sri Lanka.
According to the UN Panel of Experts report over 40,000 are unaccounted for, whilst in November 2012, the UN Secretary General's internal review panel put the figure much higher at 70,000.
"Around the world, whether in Colombia, Georgia or Sri Lanka, relatives of missing people feel a similar longing and a need to find closure, even if it is just a patch
of earth on a gravesite. For many, there are economic, administrative, psychological or psychosocial factors that prevent them from rebuilding their lives," the ICRC's latest report reads. Find it here.
"States have an obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible measures to clarify the fate and whereabouts of people who have gone missing and to inform their families accordingly," said the vice-president of the ICRC, Christine Beerli.
Stating that the ICRC was working on the cases of 52,000 missing persons worldwide, staff member Marianne Pecassou said:
"This figure is just the tip of the iceberg, since these cases are only the ones brought to the attention of the ICRC by relatives. We know that many more people remain unaccounted for around the world."
The statement which was published ahead of a new report - 'Living with Absence: Helping the Families of the Missing' - to be published August 30 to mark International Day of the Disappeared, states that 16,000 are missing in Sri Lanka.
According to the UN Panel of Experts report over 40,000 are unaccounted for, whilst in November 2012, the UN Secretary General's internal review panel put the figure much higher at 70,000.
"Around the world, whether in Colombia, Georgia or Sri Lanka, relatives of missing people feel a similar longing and a need to find closure, even if it is just a patch
of earth on a gravesite. For many, there are economic, administrative, psychological or psychosocial factors that prevent them from rebuilding their lives," the ICRC's latest report reads. Find it here.