Agency responsible for search for civilian hostages will appear soon: human rights defenders see risks

The Cabinet of Ministers may soon grant the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War the authority to register, search for and return civilians detained by Russia. Human rights defenders believe that the decision to hand over all the functions of working with civilian captives to the Coordination Headquarters is risky as the agency specializes in dealing with military personnel.

This became known during the discussion “Gone missing during the war. How can Ukraine find and return its people?” in Kyiv on December 12. The event was held by the Human Rights Centre ZMINA and the Media Initiative for Human Rights in partnership with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and with the support of the Foundation “Partnership for a Strong Ukraine”. Discussion participants were representatives of government agencies involved in the work of the Coordination Headquarters, NGOs and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

As the organizers note, during the war, the state adopted special legislation that defines the legal status of persons gone missing under special circumstances, as well as social and legal protection of civilian hostages and their families. Although these decisions were very important for Ukrainian citizens, there are also problems in the implementation of this legislation.

Therefore, the discussion was focused on the necessary changes in the structure responsible for coordinating efforts to search for missing people, as well as on the much-needed mechanisms for the registration, search for and release of civilian hostages.

There is currently no exact information on how many people have gone missing and how many are civilian hostages.

“The register of missing persons exists but it is not fully functional. Many families do not have contact with investigators who should investigate the facts of disappearances,” notes Olena Biliachkova, coordinator of groups of families of captives and missing persons at the Media Initiative for Human Rights.

The expert says that currently there is not a single responsible agency dealing with the registration and search for civilian captives. At the same time, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War notes that soon this agency will not only keep track of the captives but also negotiate with Russia about their release.

At the same time, the decision to give the Coordination Headquarters all the functions is risky, according to MIHR executive director Tetiana Katrychenko:

“On the one hand, there are thousands of families in Ukraine who are waiting for their relatives. They are tired of applying for years to various agencies and getting rejections everywhere. They want to know who is the one responsible on behalf of the state, whom they can address. On the other hand, there is a reservation regarding the transfer of the issue of civilians to the Coordination Headquarters. This agency actually operates within the structure of the Ministry of Defense, its leader is the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense. That is, it is logical that this agency should be engaged in the search and return of captured Ukrainian service members.”

The human rights activist also underscores that the approved changes will make Oleksandr Kononenko, a representative of the Human Rights Commissioner in the system of security and defense sector bodies, responsible for the direction of civilians in the structure of the Coordination Headquarters.

“That is, he is a person who should also protect the rights of military personnel. Will he have time to take care of civilians as well is the main question,” Katrychenko adds.

The text is prepared based on MIHR material, photo credit: MIHR.