A/HRC/14/42 9. The progress report mainly focuses upon the international legal obligations of States and parties to an armed conflict relating to the issue of missing persons. For the final report, the drafting group will have to thoroughly analyse the replies received from the States and, based upon this analysis, identify the best practices in the matter of missing persons. The Advisory Committee expresses its gratitude to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the support in the process of collection of information and to other partners. II. The respect for and implementation of international law 10. For the purposes of this study, “missing persons” are those whose families are without news of them and those who are reported, on the basis of reliable information, unaccounted for as a result of an international or non-international armed conflict. This term is different from and broader in scope than “enforced or involuntary disappearance”, as defined in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.2 11. International obligations to prevent and resolve situations of missing persons in connection with armed conflict are based both on international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Whereas international humanitarian law is specifically designed for armed conflicts, human rights treaties apply at all times and in all circumstances to all persons within the jurisdiction of a State party. Strict observance of such fundamental rights as the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to liberty and security, the right to a fair trial and the right to respect for private and family life could, to a great extent, prevent persons from going missing, including as a result of an armed conflict. If, in armed conflict, protected persons were treated in conformity with rules of international humanitarian law, including in terms of exchanges of family news, and if humanitarian organizations were allowed access to particularly vulnerable individuals, there would be fewer missing persons and fewer families without information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. In this context, the general obligation of States parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to respect and to ensure respect for the rules of international humanitarian law should be specifically mentioned. 12. International rules regarding missing persons apply in both international and noninternational armed conflicts.3 States must take all appropriate measures to reduce the 2 3 “For the purposes of this Convention, ‘enforced disappearance’ is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law”, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, art. 2. ICRC has stipulated, for situations of international armed conflict, that: • Families have the right to be informed of the fate of missing relatives (Protocol I, art. 32) • The parties to a conflict must search for persons reported missing by an adverse party (Protocol I, art. 33) and facilitate enquiries made by members of families dispersed as a result of the conflict so as to help them restore contact with one another and try to bring them together again. The parties to a conflict must also encourage the work of organizations engaged in this task (Geneva Convention IV, art. 26) • Lists showing the exact location and markings of the graves, together with particulars of the dead interred therein, must be exchanged (Protocol I, art. 34) 4 GE.10-12433