Women and the Missing: living between hope and despair

29-02-2008 Photo Collection

Women and the Missing: living between hope and despair

A large majority of those who disappear or are killed in armed conflict or other situations of violence are men, and thus the burden and anguish of clarifying their fate falls to the women left behind. This collection of images and text describes the ordeals women face when their male relatives go missing and what the ICRC is doing to support them.

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© Nick Danziger / nb pictures for ICRC / ba-e-00072

Bosnia. ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons) centre where bones of missing persons are reassembled using matching DNA to try and provide relatives as complete a body as possible before burial.

Since DNA has become a method of matching a living relative’s blood sample to one taken from a recovered bone, many widows remain sceptical or do not want to confront the reality of the death of their loved one, thus being forced to let go of hope. Nonetheless, this technology has helped thousands of women gain closure and begin the healing process.

Bosnia

Sri Lanka