O’Brien, Éadaoin --- "Forensic Science, International Criminal Law and the Duties toward Persons Killed in War" [2012] ELECD 790; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Forensic Science, International Criminal Law and the Duties toward Persons Killed in War

Author(s): O’Brien, Éadaoin

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

6. Forensic science, international
criminal law and the duties towards
persons killed in war
Éadaoin O'Brien*

In recent decades, the forensic exhumation of mass graves and other
deposition sites containing the bodies of victims of war crimes, and the
subsequent forensic analysis of the remains retrieved from such graves
have been a notable feature of international criminal tribunals. For
example, the ad hoc tribunals established in the 1990s, the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (`ICTY'), which was estab-
lished by Resolution 827 of the Security Council on 25 May 1993,1 and
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (`ICTR'), established in
November 1994 pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution
9552 incorporated forensic techniques into their investigatory and prose-
cutorial strategy. The use of forensic methodologies, including the forensic
exhumation of mass graves, is only one element of the international crimi-
nal investigation process but it is a very valuable one. Enquiries into viola-
tions of international criminal law rely on the forensic sciences `for critical
evidence that establishes the nature and pattern of crimes committed'3 as
well as for providing methods for human identification.4 Forensic analysis
pertaining to death investigations concentrates on specific crimes falling
with the broader categories under the jurisdiction of the tribunals. For
example, in the context of war crimes the forensic examination will pertain


* The research on which this chapter is based has been supported by a post-

graduate scholarship awarded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities
and ...