Platform on Missing Persons as a result of the conflict in Kosovo

Statement by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

29 June 2017

Distinguished Special Representative of the Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Distinguished participants, colleagues and friends,

We are here to plan decisive action for the families of people who remain missing following the conflict in Kosovo*. It has been 18 years, yet 1658 people remain unaccounted for. Their families have a right to know what happened to their loved ones – and, where this painful fact is relevant, the whereabouts of their bodies.

This is our solemn duty, and it is right and urgent that all parties make the extra effort to ensure the fate and whereabouts of every missing person is at last known.

Your discussions will seek to identify the steps that can be taken by all parties, both immediately and in the longer term, to bring the outstanding cases of missing persons to a resolution. But this meeting also provides a context for families on all sides to meet and jointly face their shared past. And this is crucial.

The end of a conflict can stop the terrible physical violence of war, but it cannot in itself erase the memories and scars of suffering. It does not address the hardships borne by survivors and families, perhaps especially the many women and children left to manage without the sons, husbands and fathers they loved. Unresolved, the past hangs heavy around the present.

Every society has suffered conflict – spasms of violence which drive apart communities and friends, cutting through the ordinary peace of life with bloodshed and destruction. And there is no easy roadmap for reconciliation in the aftermath of such violence. But acknowledging and examining the experiences of the past – and the ways in which people’s suffering is mirrored, on all sides – is a deeply important step forward towards healing, rebuilding those broken relationships, working towards a shared vision of the future, and ensuring that there will be a sustainable, enduring peace.

Tragically, armed conflicts are on the rise in many parts of the world. And they generate an increasing number of persons reported missing. People who have been victims of massacres; people who have been abducted and denied contact with family or friends; others who have been forcibly displaced. Members of armed forces or armed groups may go “missing in action”. Their families – like your families – have faced much harsh suffering.  

Durable reconciliation must come from within; it cannot be externally imposed. The pain and misery of conflict can only be addressed by local and national actors. But the United Nations, regional organisations and friendly Member States can assist these processes. And failure to address the issue of missing persons is an obstacle to justice; it damages the path to reconciliation between communities, often for generations. It is critical to actively engage in a process to address cases of missing persons, including by establishing adequate processes to locate, identify and repatriate the missing to their families.

To the families who are present today, I say: You have a right to know – a right to truth, and a right to justice. We have a duty to do everything we can to facilitate that truth-telling and accountability. There must be truth-telling and justice. The Working Group on Missing Persons in place between Belgrade and Pristina should be viewed as not only an important tool for the right to know but also a step towards justice. It has contributed to the resolution of more than 1,800 cases. This work needs now to accelerate, so that every case can be resolved.

I want to linger for a moment on the question of justice, because it is essential to establish accountability for crimes such as those many of you have suffered. Individuals were responsible for those crimes, and they must be brought to justice. This is crucial to avoid the perception that an entire community was responsible for violence. It was not “the Serbs” or “the Albanians” who took your loved ones – it was individuals who must be identified and sanctioned through criminal investigations and prosecutions. I must emphasise that failure to prosecute may generate cynicism, distrust towards the authorities, and an assumption of collective guilt which is profoundly corrosive to the fabric of any nation. No stable structure can be built on the basis of willed amnesia.

Following its 2014 visit to the region, the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance reported that, "Given the amount of time that has passed since the enforced disappearances occurred, and the advanced age of many witnesses, relatives and perpetrators, there is an urgent need for everyone involved in the search for missing persons in the region to set as an immediate priority the establishment of the truth, particularly the determination of the fate and whereabouts of all the disappeared."

That urgency is growing. I wish you all the best for the tremendous tasks that lie ahead of you. I hope this round table – with its impressive weight of international expertise – will contribute to strengthening the work of your mechanism. I assure you that you can count on the full support of my Office.

Thank you

* Reference to Kosovo shall be understood in full compliance with the UN SC Resolution 1244 (1999) and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.