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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© ICRC / P. Spoerri / sl-n-00035-34

Freetown, Sierra Leone. A woman receives a Red Cross message with news of her family that she had lost touch with during armed conflict.

The ICRC aims to prevent people from going missing. To this end the ICRC works tirelessly in the thick of armed conflicts to restore contact between members of families who have lost touch with one another when communications have broken down. It does so by several means including the Red Cross and Red Crescent family news network – through the exchange of Red Cross messages, by offering the use of mobile or satellite telephones, or through the Internet.

Nepal

Chechnya