Programme to follow soon

• The case studies (Bosnia and Herzegovina, WWII, and communist regime mass graves)

• The archaeological excavation of the mass graves, including the use of a preliminary examination and documentation of the area (e.g., drone, 3D. ...)

• The anthropological examination of the excavated human remains from the mass graves, including 3D scanning and superimposition

• Legal-medicinal examination of the skeletal remains (incl. CT-scan digital autopsy)

• Microbial, plant, and insect analysis as a supplementary source of information

• Chemical identification of copurified inhibitors

• Stable isotopes analysis

• The sampling strategies for the subsequent DNA identification

• DNA extraction strategies to maximize yield (bone selection, chemistry, laboratory setup, automation, inhibitor removal, etc.)

• DNA quantitation strategies

• DNA identification (capillary electrophoresis, MPS, autosomal and lineage markers, databasing, kinship and parentage calculations)

• Sample storage strategies

• Building of the reference database, including the high-throughput DNA extraction

Why would an Argentine team be relevant for me? I likely will be working somewhere in Europe, not in South America. The EAAF has been working in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania.

For example:

EAAF work in Europe

History of the EAAF

EAAF’s International Center for Training in Forensic Sciences has the objective of strengthening local and regional capacities by promoting the application of forensic sciences under international standards in cases of political, ethnic, social and religious violence, in the investigation of femicides, in the identification of victims of macrocriminality, and in the search for missing migrants. Since its founding in 1984, EAAF has been committed to sharing its expertise by training professionals in Argentina and other countries around the world. Early on, EAAF carried out this objective by promoting the creation of other teams of forensic anthropologists and training many of their founding members. Later, it began a more systematic training process by organizing lectures, courses, seminars and workshops focused on forensic sciences. Following these guiding principles, in 2012 EAAF created the “African School of Humanitarian Forensic Action” in South Africa. This school is a space for permanent training in Africa, strongly focused on investigations into cases of human rights violations. The school provides yearly trainings and over time has become a benchmark, not only in Africa, but also for professionals working in Asia. Since 2017, EAAF has replicated the African training experience in Latin America, creating the first Latin American School of Forensic Sciences and Human Rights in order to strengthen the application of forensic sciences within medical, legal and humanitarian frameworks, to develop local capacities and to promote the use of international forensic standards in different investigations being conducted in Latin America countries. During its training courses, EAAF emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of forensic investigations as well as the need to apply a comprehensive approach to each case and combine several lines of evidence with a focus on the proper search and recovery of bodies and the application of genetics and anthropological analysis for identification purposes. It also instructs on the use of physical evidence as an important and valuable component in humanitarian investigations and judicial proceedings, thus contributing to the training of professionals in the search for truth and justice for victims’ families and to the prevention of future human rights violations.

Logistics

Place

Laboratorios y sede central de la EAAF en Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos (ex ESMA)

EAAF Laboratories and Headquarters at the Memory and Human Rights Space (former ESMA)

Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (EAAF), Centro International de Capacitación de Ciencias Forense

Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, International Center for Training in Forensic Sciences

Av. del Libertador 8151

Buenos Aires, Argentina