HHRRC Resources

DNA Identification

Online Resources

•  MISSING PEOPLE, DNA ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF HUMAN REMAINS, The International Committee of the Red Cross guide to best practice in armed conflicts and other situations of armed violence, Second edition 2009.
  
• Identifying Victims Using DNA: A Guide for Families, US Department of Justice, President’s Initiative, April 2005.
  
• Website for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, NamUs, National Institute of Justice free resource for missing persons and unidentified decedent records including the Missing Persons Database, Unidentified Persons Database and UnClaimed Persons Database.

Journal Articles

• Alqassab S, Mathieu L Torture-induced electrical injury: A case report Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine Volume 77 January 2021
•  Alonso A, Andelinovic S, Martín P, Sutlovic D, Erceg I, Huffine E, Fernández de Simón L, Albarrán C, Definis-Gojanovic M, Fernández-Rodriguez A, García P, Drmic I, Rezic B, Kuret S, Sancho M, Primorac D. DNA Typing from Skeletal Remains: Evaluation of Multiplex and Megaplex STR Systems on DNA Isolated from Bone and Teeth Samples. Profiles in DNA 2001; 4(3):3-8.
  
• Ge J, Budowle B, Chakraborty R. (2011) Choosing Relatives for DNA Identification of Missing Persons. Journal of Forensic Sciences 2011; 56:S23-S28.
  
• Irwin, JA, Leney, MD, Loreille, O, Barritt, SM, Christensen, AF, Holland TD, Smith BC, Parsons TJ. Application of Low Copy Number STR Typing to the Identification of Aged, Degraded Skeletal Remains.  Journal of Forensic Sciences 2007; 52: 1322-1327
  
• Jakubowska J,  Maciejewska A, Pawłowski R. Comparison of three methods of DNA extraction from human bones with different degrees of degradation., International Journal of Legal Medicine 2012 Jan; 126(1): 173–178.
  
• Johnston E, Stephenson M. DNA Profiling Success Rates from Degraded Skeletal Remains in Guatemala. Journal of Forensic Sciences 2016; 61:989-902.
  
• Michaud CL, Foran DR. Simplified Field Preservation of Tissues for Subsequent DNA Analyses. Journal of Forensic Sciences 2011; 56:846-852.
  
• Mundorff AZ, Bartelink EJ, Mar-Cash E. DNA Preservation in Skeletal Elements from the World Trade Center Disaster: Recommendations for Mass Fatality., Journal of Forensic Sciences 2009; 54:739-745.
  
• Goodwin WH. The use of forensic DNA analysis in humanitarian forensic action: The development of a set of international standards. Forensic Science International 2017; 278:221-227.

PDF Downloads

•  Digging up the recent Spanish memory: genetic identification of human remains from mass graves of the Spanish Civil War and posterior dictatorship

Forensic Anthropology

Online Resources

•  Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense-EEAF)
  Website for EEAF, a non-governmental scientific organization that provides expertise and training in forensic anthropology internationally.

Books

•  Blau S, Ubelaker DH, editors. 2016. 2nd edition. Handbook of forensic anthropology and archaeology. New York: Rutledge
  
• Brogdon BG, Vogel H, McDowell JD. A radiological atlas of abuse, torture, terrorism and inflicted trauma. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2003.
  
• Dirkmaat D, editor. A companion to forensic anthropology. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  
• Dupras TL, Schultz JJ, Wheeler SM, Williams LJ. Forensic recovery of human remains: archaeological approaches. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2011.
  
• Komar DA, Buikstra JE. Forensic anthropology: contemporary theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  
• Ferllini R. Forensic archaeology and human rights violations. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 2007.
  
• Haglund WD, Sorg MH, editors. Advances in forensic taphonomy, method, theory and archaeological perspectives. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2001.
  
• Hinton AL. Transitional justice: global mechanisms and local realities after genocide and mass violence. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2010.
  
• Jerez-Farran C, Amago S. Unearthing Franco’s legacy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 2010.
  
• Joyce C, Stover E. Witnesses from the grave: the stories bones tell. New York: Ballentine Books, 1992.
  
• Kimmerle EH, Baraybar JP. Skeletal trauma: identification of injuries resulting from human rights abuse and armed conflict. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2008.
  
• Rosenblatt A. Digging for the disappeared: Forensic science after atrocity. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2015.
  
• Sanford V. Buried secrets: Truth and human rights in Guatemala. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  
• Stover E, Peress G. The graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar. Scalo, 1998.
  
• Verdery K. The political lives of dead bodies: reburial and postsocialist change. New York: Columbia Univeristy, 1999.
  
• Wagner S. To know where he lies: DNA technology and the search for Srebrenica’s missing. Oakland: University of California Press, 2008.

Journal Articles

•  Congram D, Ambika F, Maeyama K. Ignorance is not bliss: Evidence of human rights violations from Civil War Spain. Annals of Anthropological Practice 2014 May;38(1):43-64.
  
• Ferllini R. Forensic anthropology: The development of human rights investigations since 1945. Science & Justice 2003; 43(4):219-224.
  
• Furguson PR.”If a picture paints a thousand words’: The development of human identification techniques in forensic anthropology and their implications for human rights in the criminal process. The International Journal of Evidence & Proof 2013 Jan;17(2):127-156.
  
• Hunter JR, Brickley MB, Bourgeois J, Bouts W, Bourguignon L, Hubrecht F et al. Forensic archaeology, forensic anthropology and human rights in Europe. Science & Justice 2001; 41(3):173-178.
  
• Kimmerle EH, Himmelgreen D, Kedia S, editors. Practicing forensic anthropology: A human rights approach to the global problem of missing and unidentified persons. Annals of Anthropological Practice 2014 May;38(1)1-169.
  
• Pringle H. Witness to genocide. Archaeology 2009 Jan/Feb;62(1):28-35, 64, 65.
  
• Rosenblatt A. Forensic investigations and the human rights of the dead. Human Rights Quarterly 2010 Nov;32(4):921-950.
  
• Steadman D, Haglund W. The scope of anthropological contributions to human rights investigations. Journal of Forensic Sciences 2005; 50(1):23-30.

Videos

•  Bones, Ghosts and Human Rights: How Science Can Further Justice (minutes) 2014 lecture by Luis Fondebrider at the University of Saskatchewan.
  
• Buried Secrets: Mass Graves of Guatemala (60 minutes) 2004 New Dominion Pictures; features the work of anthropologists uncovering mass graves of Mayan villagers who were victims of Guatemala’s 30-year civil war.
  
• Following Antigone (39 minutes), Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, 2002 PBS Television; Story of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) and their work in Argentina, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, and East Timor.
  
• In the Name of the State: When Might Makes Right (48 minutes) 2002, Films Media Group; profiles various cases of state-sanctioned terrorism (Iran, Argentina, Nicaragua); includes the work of forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider.
  
• Physicians for Human Rights (5 minutes) Dr. Haglund testifying at trial of Radovan Karadzic.
  
• Unearthing Evil: Archaeology in the Cause of Justice (28 minutes) 2000, Films Media Group; features the work of Richard Wright in the Ukraine and Bosnia.

PDF Downloads

•  Anthropological Data in Individualization of Skeletal Remains from a Forensic Context in Kosovo—A Case History
  
• Archeologies of the Contemporary Past
  
• Biological Distance, Migrants, and Reference Group Selection in Forensic Anthropology
  
• Forensic Anthropology of the Spanish Civil War
  
• Forensic osteological investigations in Kosovo
  
• Forensic sciences in Libya and mass grave investigation
  
• How forensic anthropologists are helping the families of Mexico’s disappeared seek justice
  
• Rethinking the ways of repression: An approach to the experience of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
  
• The development of Forensic Anthropology in Argentina
  
• Twelve-year Experience in Identification of Skeletal Remains from Mass Graves

Forensic Nursing Health and Law

Online Resources

•  Educational resources and online training through the International Association of Forensic Nurses:
  
  • Main Page
    
  • Education
    
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine: Health and Medicine Division
  
• “Proving” Torture: An Ever-Rising Bar for Medical Evidence? Documents, videos and related media from 2015 conference by Freedom From Torture.
  
• International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims Includes information about current projects and resources relevant to the uses of forensic science in human rights efforts.

Books

•  Burgess AW. Violence Through a Forensic Lens, 2^nd ed. Nursing Spectrum, 2000.
  
• Connolly M, Ward T. Morals, rights and practice in the human services: Effective and fair decision making in health, social care and criminal justice. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.
  
• Constantino RE, Crane P, Young S. Forensic Nursing:  Evidence-Based Principles and Practice. F. A. Davis Company, 2012.
  
• Crowley, Sharon R. 1999. Sexual Assault: The Medical- Legal Examination. New York: McGraw-Hill/Appleton & Lange, 1999.
  
• DiMaio, D, DiMaio VJM. Forensic Pathology, 2^nd edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2001.
  
• Garbacz B, Donna M, Gabriel S. Forensic Nursing: A Concise Manual. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2009.
  
• Girardin, BW. Color Atlas of Sexual Assault. St Louis: Mosby, 1997.
  
• Hammer, RA, Moynihan, B, Pagiliaro EM. Forensic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice, 2^nd edition. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011.
  
• Holmes RM, Holmes ST. Fatal Violence. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2010.
  
• Humphreys, J, Campbell JC. Family Violence and Nursing Practice, 2^nd ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2010.
  
• Koehler SA, Brown PA. Forensic Epidemiology. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2009.
  
• Lindler LE, Lebeda FJ, Korch GW, editors. Biological Weapons Defense: Infectious Diseases and Conterbioterrorism. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2005.
  
• Lynch VA, Duval JB. Forensic Nursing Science, 2^nd ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2010.
  
• Mitchell C, Anglin D. Intimate Partner Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  
• Olshaker JS, Jackson CM, Smock WS. Forensic Emergency Medicine, 2^nd edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, 2006.
  
• Saferstein R. Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science, 11^th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2014.
  
• Sattler JM. Clinical and forensic interviewing of children and families: Guidelines for the mental health, education, pediatric and child maltreatment fields. Jerome M Sattler, 1997.
  
• Stark MM. Clinical Forensic Medicine, 2^nd ed. New York: Humana Press, 2005.
  
• Thompson H J, Alexy E. Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America: Violence, Injury & Trauma. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006.

Journal Articles

•  Duma S, Ogunbanjo GA. Forensic documentation of intimate partner violence in primary health care. South African Family Practice 2004;46(4):37-40.
  
• Geiger HJ, Cook-Deegan RM. The role of physicians in conflicts and humanitarian crises. Case studies from the field missions of Physicians for Human Rights, 1988 to 1993. Journal of the American Medical Association 1993 Aug 4;270(5):616-20.
  
• Kerr E, Cottee C, Chowdhury R, Jawad R, Welch J. The Haven: A pilot referral centre in London for cases of serious sexual assault. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2003 Mar;110(3):267-71.
  
• Mccracken LM. Living forensics: a natural evolution in emergency care. Accident and emergency nursing 1999 Oct;7(4):211-6.
  
• Moulton AD, Gottfried RN, Goodman RA, Murphy AM, Rawson RD. What is public health legal preparedness? Journal of Law and Medical Ethics 2003 Winter;31(4):672-83.
  
• Richards EP. Collaboration between public health and law enforcement: The constitutional challenge. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2002;8(10)
  
• Werner D, Wright K, Thomas M, Edgar M. An innovation in partnership among first responders and public health: Bridging the gap. Public Health Reports 2005;120(Suppl 1):64-68.

Journals

•  Journal of Forensic Nursing (published in partnership with Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins)

Videos

•  Hard to Believe (94 minutes) Swoop Films; Documentary about organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.
  
• Obstacles to Justice: Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Guatemala (72 minutes) 2012, story of Óscar Ramírez, a survivor of the 1982 Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala as a child, living in the United States and applying for political asylum.
  
• Prisoners and Human Rights Challenges (71 minutes) 2013, Discussion at Castan Centre for Human Rights Law regarding potential and challenges related to protecting human rights of prisoners in the Australian prison system with Kim Page, Debbie Kilroy and Bronwyn Naylor.

PDF Downloads

•  Minimum Standards for Forensic Medicine Practice in Africa

Forensic Science & Human Rights

Online Resources

•  AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Tools and Resources
  American Association for the Advancement of Science resources including annotated bibliography, guidelines and teaching resources for science and human rights.
  
• Forensic training for human rights and humanitarian investigations
  From Physicians for Human Rights & the United States Institute of Peace; free online course for volunteers or professionals.
  
• Forensic training materials
  From the National Forensic Science Technology Center including free online seminars, workshops and course materials for law enforcement and forensic science practitioners on a variety of topics.
  
• Physicians for Human Rights International Forensic Program
  Physicians for Human Rights and United States Institute of Peace program for providing forensic expertise in cases involving the violation of human rights and humanitarian laws.
  
• New Tactics in Human Rights
  Website with examples of human rights tactics, including publication by Luis Fondebrinder entitled, “Uncovering the Evidence: The forensic sciences in human rights.”
  
• American Chemical Society Human Rights Webinars
  Webinars “to inform the public on identify appropriate and practical solutions to human rights problems facing the scientific community.”
  
• Human Rights Research
  Connecting disciplines to improve human rights research.

Journal Articles

•  Cordner S., Bouwer H., Tidball-Binz M., The ebola epidemic in Liberia and managing the dead – A future role for humanitarian forensic action? Forensic Science International 2017; 279:302-309.
  
• Cordner S., Tidball-Binz M., Humanitarian forensic action: Its origin and future. Forensic Science International 2017; 279:65-71.
  
• Ellingham STD, Perich P., Tidball-Binz M.. The fate of human remains in a maritime context and feasibility for forensic humanitarian action to assist in their recovery and identification. Forensic Science International 2017; 279:229-234.
  
• Mikellide M. Recovery and identification of human remains in post-conflict environments: A comparative study of the humanitarian forensic programs in Cyprus and Kosovo. Forensic Science International 2017; 279: 33-40.
  
• Salado Puerto M, Tuller H. Large-scale forensic investigations into the missing: Challenges and considerations. Forensic Science International 2017; 279:219-228.
  
• Thomsen JL. Ethical consideration for forensic scientists participating in humanitarian action: A personal reflection. Forensic Science International 2017; 278:379-380.
  
• Fkires-Yeffal N., Pren K., Predicting Unauthorized Salvadoran Migrants’ First Migration to the United States Between 1965 and 2007. Journal on Migration and Human Security 2018: 1-14
  
• Kovras, I., Robins, S., Death at the Border: Managing Missing Migrants and Unidentified Bodies at the EU’s Mediterranean Frontier. Political Geography 55 2016; 40-49

Videos

•  Identifying the missing: Forensic Investigations of Human Rights Violations (63 minutes) 2010, Thomas S. Foley Institute featuring the work of geneticist Christian Orrego Benavente, Director of Forensic Programs at the Human Rights Center, University of California Berkely School of Law.
  
• The future of human rights technology (84 minutes) 2014, Panel discussion from Roosevelt House, Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.
  
• The Judge and The General. Directed by Elisabeth Farnsworth. PBS Point of View, 2008. Demonstrates use of forensic sciences as part of human rights fact-finding in criminal investigation of General Pinochet of Chile.
  
• Srebrenica forensic specialist: grieving process can start now Ratko Mladic is on trial. The Telegraph, 16 May, 2012.  Video news clip and footage of forensic investigation at time of Mladic’s arrest.

PDF Downloads

•  Colombia: The Pueblo Bello Case
  
• Deaths at the Borders Database: Evidence of Deceased Migrants’ Bodies Found Along the Southern External Borders of the European Union
  
• Dying for independence: proactive investigations into the 12 November 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, Timor Leste
  
• Forensic Anthropology and the Most Probable Cause of Death in Cases of Violations Against International Humanitarian Law: An Example from Bosnia and Herzegovina 
  
• Forensic anthropology in the armed conflict in the Latin American context. Comparative study Argentina, Guatemala, Peru and Colombia
  
• Game’s Afoot in Many Lands for Forensic Scientists Investigating Most-Extreme Human Rights Abuses
  
• International Forensic Investigations and the Human Rights of the Dead Investigation of clandestine graves resulting from human rights abuses
  
• Mobile Autopsy Teams in the Investigation of War Crimes in Kosovo 1999
  
• The development of human rights investigations since 1945
  
• The Investigation of the Human Remains of the “disappeared” in Argentina
  
• The Many Hats of a Recovery Leader: Perspectives on Planning and Executing Worldwide Forensic Investigations and Recoveries at the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory
  
• The Scope of Anthropological Contributions to Human Rights Investigations
  
• The use of forensic archaeology in the investigation of human rights abuse: Unearthing the past in East Timor
  
• Yes There Was Genocide: Anthropologists and the Genocide Trial of Guatemala’s Montt Rivers

Mass Graves

Journal Articles

• Clegg, L. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the protection of world war dead. Forensic Science International 2021; 319
• Congram D, Kennyherz M, Green AG. Grave mapping in support of the search for missing persons in conflict contexts. Forensic Science International 2017; 278:260-268.
  
• Preface – International Committee of the Red Cross Requesting Forensic Assistance. Forensic Science International. 2017; 279; 121.

PDF Downloads

•  Distinguished guests or agents of ingérence: foreign participation in Spanish Civil War grave excavations 
  
• Guidelines for International Forensic Bio-archaeology Monitors of Mass Grave Exhumations 
  
• Identification of victims from two mass-graves in Serbia: A critical evaluation of classical markers of identity 
  
• Identification process in mass graves from the Spanish Civil War I 
  
• Identification process in mass graves from the Spanish Civil War II 
  
• Missing people and mass graves in Iraq
  
• PLANNING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECOVERY OF EVIDENCE FROM RECENT MASS SERIOUS
  
• The Case of an Armenian Mass Grave
  
• The Political, Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain
  
• Turf wars: Authority and responsibility for the investigation of serious mass

Multidisciplinary Investigations

Journal Articles

•  Cordner S, Ellingham STD. Two halves make a whole: Both first responders and experts are needed for the management and identification of the dead in mass disasters. Forensic Science International 2017; 279:60-64.

PDF Downloads

•  A multidisciplinary approach to the investigation of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide: the Inforce Foundation
  
• Dental identification of war victims from Petrinja in Croatia 
  
• Discovering the 60 years old secret: identification of the World War II mas graves victims from the island of Daksa near Dubrovnik, Croatia
  
• Organizational anorama on Anthropology and Forensic Pathology in Spain
  
• Solving certain dental records problems with technology—The Canadian solution in the Thailand tsunami response 
  
• The use of forensic botany and geology in war crimes investigations in NE Bosnia

Standards in Human Rights and Forensic Science

Online Resources

•  Human Rights Advocacy and the History of International Human Rights Standards
  University of Michigan website for “instructors, students, advocates (practitioners) and researchers interested in the standard-setting advocacy work of the international human rights movement and the intellectual history of contemporary international human rights policy.” Includes information and resources for forensic evidence and human rights reporting.
  
• Forensic Science Standards Organization
  National Institute of Standards and Technology standards, guidelines and code of practice for forensic science.

PDF Downloads

•  Archaeology and the Forensic Investigation of Recent Mass Graves: Ethical Issues for a New Practice of Archaeology
  
• Developing standards in international forensic work to identify missing persons
  
• Forensic Investigations Into the Missing: Recommendations and Operational Best Practices 
  
• Guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence 
  
• IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS: EVIDENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS FROM CIVIL WAR SPAIN 
  
• INTERSITE ANALYSIS OF VICTIMS OF EXTRA- AND JUDICIAL EXECUTION IN CIVIL WAR SPAIN: LOCATION AND DIRECTION OF PERIMORTEM GUNSHOT TRAUMA 
  
• Managing the dead in catastrophes: guiding principles and practical recommendations for first responders
  
• National Institute of Justice National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) Policy Manual
  
• The Need for a Centralized and Humanitarian- based Approach to Missing Persons in Iraq: An Example from Kosovo
  
• Overview of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
  
• People missing as a result of armed conflict Standards and guidelines are needed for all, including health professionals

Forensic Photography

Online Resources

•  Online course: Digital Crime Scene Photography by National Forensic Science Technology Center

Books

•  Duncan CD. Advanced Crime Scene Photography, 2^nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015.
  
• Dutelle AW. 2015. Basic Crime Scene Photography, 2^nd ed. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
  
• Jones P. 2011. Practical Forensic Digital Imaging: Applications and Techniques. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2011.
  
• Marin N, Buszka J. Alternate Light Source Imaging: Forensic Photography Techniques. New York: Routledge, 2013.
  
• Marsh N. Forensic Photography: A Practitioners Guide. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
  
• Redsicker DR. The Practical Methodology of Forensic Photography, 2^nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2000.
  
• Robinson EM. Crime Scene Photography, 2^nd ed. Academic Press, 2010.
  
• Weiss SL. Forensic Photography: The Importance of Accuracy. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008.

National Institute of Justice

Podcast

• Just So You Know: AAFS Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center