RESUMEN
The effective search for the missing and identification of persons, alive or dead, are core components in the prevention and in resolving the issue of Missing Persons. Despite the growing literature on this topic, there is still a lack of publications describing the Search as a process that includes different phases inherently composed of forensic investigative and identification principles for both living and deceased missing persons. This paper is the result of discussions between the Forensic Unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and members of its external Forensic Advisory Board. It aims to present the Search process as an overarching concept that includes the investigation and identification phases of the missing in any state (dead or alive), in any scenario (with or without bodies), with an integrated, multidisciplinary, and multiagency approach for implementation by all actors involved in the investigation and identification phases of missing persons.
RESUMEN
On May 24, 2010, 800 soldiers and 370 police officers stormed into Tivoli Gardens, an impoverished district in the capital of Jamaica. Their aim was to restore state authority in this part of Kingston and to arrest Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who was wanted for extradition to the United States on drug and arms trafficking charges. The incursion was the culmination of nine months of national political turmoil. The first aim was achieved, but the second was not, and only at great cost. Around 70 civilians and three members of the security forces were killed. The authors constituted a small group of international forensic pathologists who, at the request of the Public Defender and over a four-week period from mid-June, observed the autopsies of the civilians. This paper describes some of the outcomes of this work, set within the evaluation of the incursion by the Commission of Enquiry. The Enquiry concluded there was evidence of at least 15 extrajudicial killings and was highly critical of many other aspects of the operation and its aftermath.
RESUMEN
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate major findings in the recovery and analysis of victims, where dismemberment is the cause of death, but also a manner of torture within the context of the armed conflict in Colombia. It is intended to provide useful analytical information and to contribute to the correct interpretation of forensic analyses in cases of dismemberment and/or in the examination of human remains within the context of the Colombian armed conflict. The importance of including dismemberment as an opinion in the forensic report by correlating the findings on the body, the grave and context of the information available, and the accounts on the facts is encouraged. Otherwise these cases will be recorded as undetermined cause of death, which does not reflect the brutality of the war.