Germany is supporting an ICMP project to help the authorities in Colombia design and implement measures to account for missing persons. Under an agreement signed on Thursday by Germany's Ambassador to The Netherlands, Dirk Brengelmann, and ICMP Director-General, Kathryne Bomberger, the German government will provide funding for the initial assessment stages of ICMP's Colombia program.
In this phase of the program, ICMP will examine the prospects for implementing measures to account for missing persons in Colombia following the October 2 referendum, in which the voters narrowly rejected the current terms of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo (FARC-EP) to end five decades of conflict. A new round of negotiations is now underway.
ICMP will also assess challenges in the process of setting up institutional measures to account or missing persons, analyse recommendations that have been put forward by national authorities, victims, civil society organisations and international organisations, and provide the relevant authorities with a roadmap of policy actions to implement these recommendations. "ICMP has been working in Colombia since 2008 at the request of the authorities, and it has been specifically tasked under the Havana Accords with helping to implement a systematic and effective missing persons process based on the rule of law," Director-General Bomberger said following the signing of the contract on Thursday. "We are grateful to the German government, as this grant will allow us to begin the next phase of what we believe will be a sustained and productive relationship with the authorities and with families of the missing in Colombia."
"Germany is committed to supporting the peace process in Colombia, and ICMP's role in this process is focused, specialised and very necessary. This is why we are supporting this project." Ambassador Brengelmann said.-PR