On 31 August, 2018 the Head of the Department of International Connections of the Mission Yevhen Samuha and the Chief Consultant Valeria Pahomova participated in the press – conference “Disappeared persons during the war. How to find the disappeared in Ukraine” held by the International Committee of Red Cross. On the occasion of the International Day of Disappeared the installation called “Still Waiting” was opened by the ICRC at the Kyiv Southern Train Station. The Installation draws attention to the continuous wait and uncertainty of more than 1500 families whose relatives disappeared due to the military conflicts in Ukraine.
“Still Waiting” is a dozen figures of young and old men and women are symbolically waiting for their disappeared relatives, they are holding the placards with the favorite expressions of the missed members of their families written on them. Installation is supposed to help the passers-by and visitors to comprehend the suffering of those who are still waiting for their loved ones.
The participants of the event were the First Deputy Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the head of humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Iryna Herashchenko, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport of Ukraine on European Integration Mykola Movchan, representatives of Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, General Staff of Armed Forces of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine, foreign embassies, volunteers and civil activists.
Within the conference the film about the missing persons was shown, particularly the film was inspired by the six families and it the importance of searching to be carry out and resolving the status of the disappeared was emphasized. The Head of humanitarian subgroup, the People’s Deputy , Iryna Herashchenko pointed out that Ukrainian side in the subgroup insists on the establishment of the trilateral format in searching of the disappeared under the participation of the representatives of the ICRC. However, the representatives of RF refuse to delegate their experts there. The other pressed issue, according to the politician, is the restrictive access of the ICRC representatives to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in Donbas.
During the press conference Iryna Herashchenko stressed on the importance of the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Status of the Missing Persons”, adopted on 12 June 2018, which is being drafted from 2016 by the representatives of the government, international experts, particularly ICRC experts and representatives of civil organizations. As Iryna Herashchenko said “From now on, the Law defines the legal status of the missing persons and legally regulates the identification of the status including searching and legal protection of such persons and the members of their families”. The First Vice Speaker pointed that the Law provided the establishment of the advisory and consultative body at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine – Commission on issues, concerning the persons, disappeared in special circumstances by involving the officials of the State authorities of Ukraine, representatives of humanitarian and civil organizations, engaged in searching for missing under special circumstances. The Commission is aimed to accumulate an information about such persons and recording of the data necessary for the efficient searching to be conducted.