IFFAMPAC’s / Families of the Missing, (herein after FOM) principal objective in the legal area is to establish legal standing for families of missing persons. To achieve this goal, FOM drafted an innovative international convention. FOM’s new law creates a new category of human rights called “the family unit.” Defining and recognizing the family unit will grant families legal standing to address a number of legal obstacles regarding the fate of missing family members. Only then will these families obtain closure and move forward as productive members of society. The challenge is to create rights for family units, and obligate governments to respect them.
Families of the Missing is also working to set up a research program to gather and collate as much evidence as possible surrounding global armed conflicts since World War II that resulted in disappearances. FOM’s new international convention defines armed conflicts, and that definition will serve as the basis of the new research program. Evidence regarding missing persons from these armed conflicts can be in many forms, ranging from oral statements to official material that has been disclosed or undisclosed to date.
This research project is a mammoth task, yet it is necessary from a historical context to realistically assess the scale of the issue.
If you have access to any evidence that can shed light on events that may have led to enforced disappearances in any country, please be in touch with Families of the Missing.