NCMFD Launches 2025–2030 Strategy to Advance Efforts to Clarify the Fate of Missing Persons in Lebanon

The National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared (NCMFD) launched its 2025–2030 Strategy on 14 October 2026 during a meeting with donors and international partners at the UN House in Beirut, hosted by the Embassy of Switzerland, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in partnership with the Commission.

The donor-focused event brought together representatives of diplomatic missions, United Nations agencies, international organizations, alongside representatives of a number of civil society organizations working closely with the Commission on the issue of missing and forcibly disappeared persons. It provided an opportunity to present the Commission’s strategic priorities, mobilize support for their implementation, and explore potential partnerships.

The Strategy marks an important milestone in moving from the establishment of the Commission’s institutional foundations towards the effective implementation of its mandate.

The 2025–2030 Strategy outlines a phased approach to building a credible, professional, and sustainable national mechanism capable of progressing individual cases and pursuing answers for families. It places families and their right to know at the centre of the Commission’s work.

The Strategy prioritizes strengthening the management and protection of information on missing persons, developing inquiry and investigation capacities, establishing the necessary forensic and humanitarian identification capabilities, and creating a dedicated mechanism for meaningful engagement with families.

It also provides for strengthening national preparedness to address new missing-person cases arising from conflicts, disasters, and other emergencies, alongside longstanding unresolved cases. This reflects the importance of ensuring that Lebanon has permanent national capacities to respond to missing-person cases whenever they arise.

During the event, the Commission highlighted progress already achieved in establishing its institutional and operational foundations, including the adoption of data governance and information security frameworks, the operationalization of its Data Unit, and the initiation of efforts to consolidate historical information on missing persons within a unified national system.

The Commission also emphasized that implementing the Strategy requires more than financial resources and technical expertise. Effective cooperation with public institutions and other relevant actors, access to information and records, and sustained political and diplomatic support are essential to enabling the Commission to fulfil its independent mandate.

Speaking at the event, Judge Joseph Samaha, President of the NCMFD, stressed the importance of translating Law No. 105/2018 into concrete action and securing the institutional cooperation and sustained political and diplomatic support necessary to advance the Commission’s work.

The Commission expressed its appreciation to Switzerland, the ICRC, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) for their financial, technical, and institutional support, as well as to UNDP for its implementation support.

The implementation of the Strategy will require sustained cooperation among national institutions, families, civil society, and international partners. It represents an important step towards building a permanent Lebanese national mechanism capable of pursuing answers for families and ensuring that the issue of missing and forcibly disappeared persons remains a national responsibility.