New Proposal for the Search of Missing Persons and Support for Families: Galyan

The Parliament is discussing the Government’s proposal on the package of draft laws entitled "On Missing Persons in Conditions and Circumstances Created as a Result of Military Actions" for first reading approval. According to the main speaker, Minister of Justice Surbuhi Galyan, the legal relationships concerning missing persons due to military actions are not comprehensively regulated at present.

She noted that a number of key issues related to this category of individuals remain unresolved, and while some questions have received partial regulation in various legal acts, they are insufficient and not organized. The Minister emphasized the necessity to adopt a separate framework law to ensure comprehensive regulation of legal relationships concerning persons missing as a result of military actions.

She presented the main provisions of the proposal, indicating that the law will define who is considered a missing person. According to Surbuhi Galyan, a missing person will include servicemen as well as other individuals not on active duty, including those who voluntarily signed up for combat operations and have gone missing in connection with military actions, as a result of enemy assault actions, fulfilling service duties, participating in combat operations for the protection of the Republic of Armenia, or during combat duty or special tasks at the contact line, during a declared ceasefire, or in peaceful conditions following military operations.

The Minister stated that the draft establishes the rights of missing persons and their family members, including the right to receive reliable information about the circumstances and reasons for disappearance, whereabouts, if found, circumstances of death, and to receive the body or remains. It was noted that a separate legal act is necessary to clarify legal regulations regarding the issues that have received cursory regulation in various legal acts, by standardizing them through law in an organized and defined manner.

The draft also provides a legal definition of a missing person, considering that this is currently not enshrined in the legislation of the Republic of Armenia. It was also emphasized that there is currently a lack of a unified database on persons missing in connection with the defense efforts of the Republic of Armenia during military operations or armed conflicts, as well as clear mechanisms for information exchange between state bodies and private individuals.

One of the goals of the draft is to form a unified electronic database containing information about missing persons, as well as the presence or absence of court decisions recognizing them as missing or deceased. The draft also proposes provisions regarding the rights to benefits, compensation for damage, and support funds for missing persons and their family members, following the procedures established by the law on "Compensation for Damages Caused to the Lives or Health of Servicemen During the Defense of the Republic of Armenia." The procedure for submitting requests for the search of a missing person, the regulations related to the search process, cases of termination of searches, the authorized body, the operation of the unified register, as well as frameworks for international cooperation are also specified.

The accompanying draft laws also foresee the rights to pensions and benefits for family members of missing persons in the case of losing a breadwinner, as well as the establishment of legal bases for providing social and psychological assistance. The objective of these draft laws is to regulate the legal status of missing persons and ensure the protection of their rights and those of their family members.