Forensic technologies - which collect and analyze physical evidence related to crimes - have long played a crucial role in post-conflict settings, most notably in identifying human remains and providing criminal evidence in law enforcement cases. Despite these investigations being central to supporting families seeking justice after conflict, families are often sidelined in national searches for the disappeared in post-conflict settings, excluded from the process and apprised of only some, if any, of the findings. For more than two decades, GIJTR partner the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala (FAFG) has been working to change this by incorporating the use of forensic sciences to assist families in the search for the missing and disappeared in Guatemala, where it is estimated that 45,000 people were disappeared during the country’s 36-year civil war. In this video, Fredy Peccerelli, executive director of FAFG, discusses GIJTR and FAFG’s groundbreaking approach, explaining that without full access to information about their loved ones’ fate, families are unable to find closure - and opportunities for trust-building and healing at personal and national levels are lost.
