Accompanying the Families of Missing Persons - A Practical Handbook

When a family member goes missing during an armed conflict or other situation of violence, it causes significant distress for all his or her relatives. Accompanying them in their search for the missing person, and helping them to cope with the various difficulties their situation presents, is vitally important. Today, a number of individuals from various educational and cultural backgrounds are involved in providing such support. This is a particularly challenging task because it often requires action on many levels.

The main objective of this handbook is to bolster the role of ‘accompaniers’ – the people who undertake such support (see Section 3) – by providing them with the following:
--- An overview and understanding of the specific issues that the families of missing persons (the Missing) face
--- Adescription of accompaniment as an alternative approach – for non-mental-health specialists and/or legal experts – to supporting families with missing relatives in their long search and to promoting their psychological well–being
--- Practical tools and recommendations based on the real needs of the families

The handbook is based mainly on the experiences, in various contexts, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and others involved in supporting families whose relatives have gone missing as a con- sequence of armed conflict or of violence in some other form. It is not intended to be exhaustive; it cannot be exhaustive, as it is based almost entirely on our experience so far. Additional material will be incorporated as it becomes available.