The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) invited EAAF in 2019 to lead a practical training project for first responders in the Raqqa area of Syria, on procedures in emergency situations where it is necessary to assess the retrieval of remains whose integrity is at risk and to protect those bodies and associated evidence for subsequent forensic analysis, when conditions and capacities allow. Additionally, EAAF served as a consultant to SJAC on the handling, management and analysis of information.
In March 2022, EAAF was invited by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to participate in consultative meetings held in Montreux, Switzerland and organized in coordination with Impunity Watch. The aim was to discuss – along with organizations of family members from Syria – proposals for creating a mechanism to search for and identify missing persons in Syria, in response to UN General Assembly Resolution 76/228, which requested a study for the preparation of such a proposal. On April 7 2022, the High Commissioner presented the results of the study to the General Assembly along with the proposal.
On June 29, 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 77/301, establishing the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).
Subsequent to that, EAAF was invited by the UN Human Rights Office in Syria (OHCHR) to participate in various technical consultative meetings held in Switzerland for the purpose of developing the mechanism’s Terms of Reference.
In September 2025, the IIMP appointed an 11-member advisory board made up of 6 representatives of victims, 3 Syrian civil society organizations and 2 international experts, one of whom is a member of EAAF.
Currently, EAAF continues in its advisory role to the IIMP through its active participation on the board.
