Terms and Conditions
Welcome to the Missing Persons Global Response Website. This website is hosted by the ICRC.
The ICRC is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflicts and other situations of violence and to provide them with assistance. It also endeavors to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.
The Missing Persons Global Response website is a platform to facilitate knowledge exchange, learning, and cooperation amongst practitioners working on the issue of missing persons worldwide. It brings together content and resources contributed by the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, universities, research institutes, NGOs, UN agencies, family associations, governments, donors, and other initiatives.
Although hosted by the ICRC, the content of this website may not be interpreted as positioning the ICRC in any way, and its content does not amount to formal policy or doctrine, unless specifically indicated as such.
1. Accepting the General Conditions of Use
1.1 By accessing and using our website you agree to be bound by these general Conditions of Use (“Conditions”), which you declare you have read and understood.
1.2 The ICRC reserves the right to amend or change these Conditions at any time, at its sole discretion. It is up to you to consult them regularly on this website to keep yourself informed of any changes.
1.3 By using the website you accept that the mere fact of publishing revised Conditions on it is sufficient to make any alteration or revision effective with respect to you. Your continuing to use the website after a change means that you accept these alterations.
1.4 Some of the content on the website may be upsetting for some people: be it the images themselves or the terms used that reflect the practices of the time. The ICRC cannot guarantee that you will not be exposed to this content if you visit this site.
2. Registering on the site
2.1 You do not need to register in order to consult the documents on the website.
2.2 To have your content featured on the Missing Persons Global Response Website however, you will be requested to fill a submission form providing information about your organization or the content you are submitting. You undertake to provide correct, accurate, up-to-date, complete information about yourself and/or your organization, as requested by the required registration form. If you provide details that are incorrect, inaccurate, outdated or incomplete, or if the ICRC has reasonable grounds for thinking that you may have done so, or has reason to believe that you have not complied with some provision set out in these Conditions, it shall be entitled to reject the publication of the content proposed or deny you the use of the website (or any part of it), now or in the future, without having to justify its decision.
2.3 All content proposed for publication should fall within the scope of the website subject matter. Any content that is considered irrelevant or includes disrespectful, abusive, offensive, obscene, violent or inappropriate content of any kind will not be accepted for publication.
2.4 You agree not to include in any of the forms submitted other people names, postal or email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact information, unless they have agreed to provide such information. Any content including reference to other people’s personal data without their knowledge and consent will be rejected or removed.
3. Use of the content
3.1 The ICRC authorizes those using the website to download its content for personal use. For commercial use, prior authorization in writing must first be obtained from the ICRC: please contact us.
No matter how you use the website, you undertake :
- not to prejudice the ICRC’s impartial, neutral and independent humanitarian work;
- not to alter the content of the website, or related references, in any way whatsoever;
- to cite the source, the link, the authors, the title or the caption, the date and the reference.
You may not under any circumstances :
- sell the content of this website (photos, film/video footage, sound recordings or their descriptions);
- incorporate the content into any database (commercial or otherwise); or
- change how a film or video is edited.
3.2 You undertake not to infringe any legal provisions and not to use the website for any illegal purpose; not to introduce any false, incomplete or inaccurate information into it; not to introduce any virus, Trojan horse or any other program designed to cause damage, produce a harmful effect, or intercept or counteract any system, piece of data or personal information.
4. Downloadable content
Downloadable content and their references are described and available on the website.
5. Intellectual property and rights of the individual
5.1 The website and its content (texts, images, sound, photos, film footage, music, data, logos, brands, software, etc.) are protected by intellectual property rights, in particular copyright and related rights, and by rights vested in individuals, in particular the right to control the use of one’s voice and one’s image. The website and its contents are the exclusive property of the ICRC and/or of the rights-holders.
5.2 The ICRC has made every reasonable effort to clarify copyright and find the rights-holders for certain documents about which it had doubts. If, while using the website, you should become aware of a potential violation of the above rights or any other rights, please contact us immediately. The ICRC undertakes to remove provisionally, and as quickly as possible, any contentious record brought to its attention.
5.3 Where one of the above rights, or any other right, is infringed – and in particular where rights-holders have put forward a valid objection to the use of the contentious record on the website – the ICRC undertakes to remove the contentious record from the website for good.
6. Changes to the service
The ICRC reserves the right to alter or shut down the website (or any part of it) temporarily or for good, with or without notice. You agree that the ICRC shall not be answerable to you or to any third party for any alteration to or suspension or cessation of the website or service. Any part of the content may be obsolete at any time without the ICRC's being in any way bound to update this content.
7. Termination
You agree that the ICRC may, at its sole discretion, cancel your use of the website and remove and/or delete any record from the website for any reason whatsoever – in particular if the ICRC considers you have breached a provision of these Conditions – without prejudice to the other means available to the ICRC in the event of an infringement of these Conditions. The ICRC may also withdraw the website or any part of it, at its sole discretion and at any time, with or without notice. You agree that your access to the website may be suspended without notice, by virtue of any provision in these Conditions. You further agree that the ICRC shall not be answerable in any way to you or to a third party for any cancellation of your access to the website.
8. Exclusionary clause
8.1 You access and use the website solely at your own risk. The website and its content are provided as is and as available. The ICRC gives no guarantee, whether express or implied, as to the quality or availability of the website or its content or their fitness for a particular purpose, and you agree not to rely on any such guarantee.
8.2 The ICRC makes no representation or warranty that (i) the website or its content will meet your needs, (ii) the website service will be uninterrupted, punctual, secure or error-free, (iii) the results obtained by using the website will be accurate or reliable, or that (iv) any error of content will be corrected.
8.3 You download any document or record or obtain it in some other way through the use of the website at your own risk, and you alone will be liable for any damage caused to your computer system or for any loss of data resulting from the downloading of such documents or records.
8.4 No information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from the ICRC either by means of or from the website shall create a guarantee or any other obligation not expressly indicated in these Conditions, and the ICRC disclaims any liability for any trust placed in such information by any visitor to the website, or by any person who may be informed of any part of its content.
9. Indemnity
You undertake to indemnify the ICRC, its partners and employees, from and against any and all liabilities, losses, damages, claims, penalties, fines, fees and expenditure, including but not limited to reasonable lawyers' fees, arising out of: (i) your use of or access to the website, including but not limited to any content thereof, or your connection to the website, or (ii) your failure to comply with any of the provisions set out in these Conditions.
10. Limitation of liability
You acknowledge and expressly agree that the ICRC is not liable for any direct, consequential, incidental, particular or resulting damage, nor any punitive damages, including, inter alia, damages for loss of earnings, loss of customers, loss of enjoyment, loss of data or other intangible benefits (even where the ICRC has been notified of the possibility of damage) resulting from: (i) the use of the website or the impossibility of using it, (ii) the cost of purchasing replacement goods or services arising from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions concluded by means of or from the website, (iii) unauthorized access to your data transmissions or the alteration thereof, (iv) statements by or the behavior of any third party on the website, (v) results given on the website or any websites linked to it or any documents published on it, (vi) any infringement of the rights of third parties, in particular copyright, related rights or the rights of the individual, whether directly or indirectly linked to the use of the website or its content, or (vii) any other issue relating to the website.
11. Exclusions and limitations
11.1 In some jurisdictions it is not permissible to exclude certain guarantees or to limit or exclude liability for incidental or consequential damages. Accordingly, some of the restrictions mentioned in these Conditions may not apply to you.
11.2 Where your rights and the exclusion or limitation of liability are concerned, these Conditions shall be subject to the mandatory legal provisions applicable.
12. General information
12.1 These Conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and the ICRC concerning their subject; they cancel and replace all previous agreements, arrangements and undertakings of any kind between you and the ICRC on this subject, whether oral or written. You may be subject to additional conditions of use which may apply when you use the services of affiliated companies, third-party content or third-party software.
12.2 The website may contain or reference links to third party websites and social media platforms (“Third-Party Websites”) - such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Such Third-Party Websites are not under the ICRC’s control. The ICRC is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Websites or any link contained in a Third-Party Websites. Access to any Third-Party Websites are at your own risk, and you acknowledge and understand that linked Third-Party Websites may contain terms and privacy policies that are different from this website. The ICRC is not responsible for such provisions, and expressly disclaims any liability for them.
12.3 The fact that the ICRC does not implement or enforce any right or provision set out in these Conditions shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
12.4 If a provision in these Conditions is ruled to be null and void, the parties nevertheless agree that their intentions, as apparent from the provision, shall be carried out to the fullest extent possible and that the other provisions in the Conditions shall remain in full force and effect. The titles of the sections in these Conditions are designed merely to make them easier to consult and have no legal or contractual effect.
12.5 You may not assign or transfer any of your rights or obligations or sub-contract the fulfilment of any of your obligations under these Conditions. The ICRC may assign or transfer any right or obligation, or sub-contract any of its obligations under these Conditions, to any third party, at any time, without your consent (this consent being given by these provisions).