A/HRC/16/70 Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 10 years after the end of the war, the fate of more than 14,000 people had still not been clarified, 5,500 of whom went missing in Srebrenica. In Kosovo, more than 2,000 people from all the communities have been reported missing by their families. Since the war in Iraq in 2003, tens of thousands of people have been seeking family members.3 Thousands of families do not know the fate of their missing relatives in Nepal (1996-2006),4 East Timor (1975-1999), Eritrea/Ethiopia (1998-2000), in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation (since 1994) and in Sri Lanka (since 1983).5 “A total of 7,643 persons remain missing, including 4,604 Azerbaijanis and 947 Armenians, from the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region,” and “1,763 Georgians and 197 Abkhaz from the conflict over the Abkhazia region”.6 16. The problem of missing causes particular suffering to women and children. Armed conflicts often result in them being displaced and separated from family members. Women and children go missing for different reasons, one of them being sexual exploitation. In its resolution 7/28, the Human Rights Council requested States to pay the utmost attention to cases of children and women reported missing in connection with armed conflicts and to take appropriate measures to search for and identify those children and women. 17. Frequently, the majority of those missing in relation to armed conflict are men. The very fact that many women survive conflicts in which their menfolk have died or gone missing has enormous implications. Women in such situations desperately try to ascertain the fate of their loved ones and have to cope as head of the household. Women whose husbands are missing experience many of the same problems as widows, albeit without official recognition of their status. In most contexts, there is no official acknowledgement of the status of “missing person”, which jeopardizes women’s rights with respect to property administration, inheritance, guardianship of children, entitlement to benefits and the prospect of remarriage. 18. The issue of missing persons is a humanitarian problem with human rights and international humanitarian law implications. It should be depoliticized and consequently should not be dependent on the political settlements of the conflicts concerned. III. Respect for and implementation of international law 19. International obligations to prevent and resolve situations of missing persons in connection with armed conflict are based on both 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 fair trial, and the right to respect for private and family life could, to a great extent, prevent persons from going missing as a result of armed conflict. On the other hand, if, in 3 4 5 6 See “The missing: a hidden tragedy”, the magazine of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, available from www.redcross.int/en/mag/magazine2008_1/4-9.html. See “Nepal – Missing: the right to know”, ICRC, available from www.icrc.org/web/doc/siterfl0.nsf/html/familylinks-nepal-2007-eng. “The missing: action to resolve the problem of people unaccounted for as a result of armed conflict or internal violence and to assist their families”, ICRC, June 2005, p.12. See “Missing persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia from the conflicts over the NagornoKarabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions”, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, doc. 11196, 7 March 2007. 5