Capacity Building for Associations of Families of Missing Persons

About this grant

Resolving the more than 25,000 cases of people missing as a result of the conflicts in the regions of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s will contribute both to a sense of closure on the part of family members and to the processes of peace building and reconciliation in the region. The International Commission on Missing Persons works to help these associations work together and engage in decisionmaking and policy development that will address issues of the past. More than 100 associations of families of missing persons are registered in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro. Multiyear funding will enable the commission to foster dialogue among diverse national/religious groups; organize bimonthly meetings to coordinate the national/religious groups; conduct intragroup workshops for associations in Kosovo to build the internal capacities of each ethnic group; award small grants for joint projects; convene workshops to foster networking; and incorporate activities related to dealing with the past into regular events and meetings.Recent activities included organizing 33 workshops for individual associations of families of missing persons, nine intragroup workshops and the first intergroup workshop which was attended by more than 50 representatives of different associations.