Background, Mandate & Mission
The Office of Missing Persons in Bougainville (OMPB) was established in June 2023 to act as the official body to clarify the fate and whereabouts of persons who went missing during the Bougainville Conflict (1988-1998) and provide psychosocial support to the affected families.
Our work is based on the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) Missing Persons (Revised) Policy 2023, adopted by the Bougainville Executive Committee on 31st May 2023. This Policy stems from provisions set out in international humanitarian law – and in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols – and the international human rights law that obligate state authorities to address the families’ right to know the fate and whereabouts of persons who go missing as a result of a conflict.
Mandate & Mission
- to act in an autonomous, humanitarian, and independent manner to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the persons that went missing during the Bougainville Conflict on the territory of Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, and other provinces of Papua New Guinea during the period between 1st October 1988 to 30th April 1998,
- to provide a framework for social cohesion, focused on the psychosocial support of families who are searching for information about their missing relatives,
- to protect the confidentiality of data and the anonymity of all individuals providing information, and not be involved in issues related to criminal prosecution, accountability of perpetrators or compensations. We are mandated not to disclose or expose our sources, and cannot pay for information, nor fund any community events, traditional activities, or reconciliations.
Our Mission is:
We have a strictly humanitarian mission of establishing an Official Registry for Missing Persons in Bougainville and providing appropriate mechanisms for searching and tracing missing persons with a view to clarifying their fate and whereabouts and, if deceased, locating, recovering, identifying, and returning the human remains to the concerned families for burial in accordance with Melanesian customs and beliefs, to the full extent possible. We work towards resolving cases of the missing persons in a prompt, effective, independent, impartial, non-discriminatory, and transparent manner. We endeavour to respond to the plight of the Missing through the provision of satisfactory answers related to the outcome of the search, and through fostering counselling and psychosocial support to families of the missing.