in assisting governments locate persons missing from 
wars, human rights abuses, and natural disasters, 
and there is an increasing demand for ICMP to as-
sist in other missing persons’ scenarios, such as, for 
example, trafficking and drug related violence. 
(3) Since the ICMP was created at the initia-
tive of the United States in 1996 at a G–7 Summit 
to address the issue of persons missing from the 
conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, the 
ICMP has developed a unique, DNA led process that 
has led to the identification of over 18,000 individ-
uals. 
(4) At the ICMP’s founding, the Department of 
State facilitated obtaining a headquarters’ agree-
ment with Bosnia and Herzegovina that provided 
ICMP with privileges and immunities so that it 
could carry out its work, which was to secure the co-
operation of governments in locating and identifying 
missing persons from the conflicts. In its head-
quarters’ agreement, ICMP is recognized as an orga-
nization equivalent to an inter-governmental organi-
zation. 
(5) ICMP’s model requires governments to take 
responsibility for clarifying the fate of missing per-
sons via governmental and rule of law mechanisms. 
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In doing so, governments build public trust in rule 
of law institutions, seek to account for all regardless 
of their status or role in conflicts, and fulfill their 
obligations to surviving families of the missing. 
(6) ICMP works closely with associations of 
families of missing persons, developing their capacity 
to take an active role in the missing persons’ proc-
ess, including holding governments to account and 
encouraging cooperation across ethnic or sectarian 
divisions. 
(7) ICMP’s work in post-conflict societies sup-
ports efforts to prevent future conflict and directly 
contributes to truth and reconciliation. ICMP also 
provides evidence including testimony in courts pros-
ecuting war crimes. 
(8) ICMP also assists countries facing large 
scale loss of life following natural or manmade disas-
ters. With the highest throughput identification lab-
oratory system in the world and unparalleled experi-
ence in the management of mortal remains, ICMP 
has become INTERPOL’s primary partner in Dis-
aster Victim Identification (DVI). 
(9) ICMP’s operational success has exceeded all 
expectations and its law-based approach that in-
cludes the judiciary and affiliated domestic legal 
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services has been extended to Colombia and Iraq. 
ICMP has also provided technical assistance to Chile 
and South Africa on conflict and human rights’ 
cases and the United States, Thailand, and the Phil-
ippines following natural disasters, such as Hurri-
cane Katrina. 
(10) In the intervening years there has also 
been increased demand for ICMP’s work to address 
other cases of missing persons, including persons 
missing from trafficking, drug related violence and 
to other missing persons’ scenarios. 
(11) Currently ICMP, through an agreement 
facilitated by the Department of State in 1997, has 
such a status in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus, for 
example, allowing it to maintain and protect a data-
base that contains 150,000 genetic profiles. In two 
years’ time, ICMP will experience a situation of di-
minishing resources on its assistance in the Balkans, 
which could have continued political consequences on 
its work if it maintains its headquarters and capac-
ities in that region. However, moving ICMP’s head-
quarters and technical capacities from Bosnia and 
Herzegovina would have immediate consequences on 
ICMP’s ability to maintain some of its current core 
technical activities. 
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(12) ICMP is not incorporated under the do-
mestic law of any country, and is by implication not 
a nongovernmental organization. In order to carry 
out its work, ICMP has been granted the status of 
a quasi-international organization with international 
legal capacities in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, and 
Serbia. However, that status is not universally rec-
ognized, which has led to an unclear legal situation 
outside these countries. 
(13) Certain immunities are required for oper-
ations considering that ICMP operates on sovereign 
territory in crime scenes (such as mass graves) and 
holds considerable quantities of confidential genetic 
information relating to victims of human rights’ 
abuses and their surviving relatives. 
(14) A series of meetings convened by the 
ICMP during 2002 and 2004, with government rep-
resentatives from the United States, Denmark, the 
Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, reviewed the 
ICMP’s work and its need for a permanent and 
internationally recognized legal status. The rep-
resentatives produced a draft framework agreement, 
which remains unratified, but the government rep-
resentatives did agree to expand ICMP’s work, thus 
allowing it to work globally in assisting governments, 
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and the representatives also stipulated that ICMP 
should extend its activities to include assistance to 
governments in locating persons missing from nat-
ural disasters, as well as from wars and violations of 
human rights. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the United States should continue to sup-
port the work of the International Commission on 
Missing Persons (ICMP) to— 
(A) clarify the fate of persons missing as 
a result of conflict and natural and man-made 
disasters; and 
(B) collect and maintain sensitive genetic 
information for victim identification; 
(2) the United States should continue to sup-
port the expansion of the ICMP’s mandate to in-
clude assistance to governments in locating all per-
sons missing for involuntary reasons; 
(3) the President should enunciate a clear pol-
icy of assisting the ICMP in establishing a perma-
nent and internationally recognized legal status to 
carry out its mandate globally; and 
(4) the Secretary of State shall make every ef-
fort to advance this proposal at the United Nations. 
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