THE PROMISE OF PROTECTING ALL
Some of the worst predictions about the future
of the regional system are based on the fact that too
much of the responsibility for the Inter-American’s system development depends on national governments,
many of which are still engaged in gross violations of
human rights or in the systematic disenfranchisement
of vast sectors of their own societies, and which resist
international supervision.
The governments in our region are responsible for
the substantial financial support needed for the system’s operations, but often fail to provide it. Moreover,
they have the power to change the rules of the game
at their own convenience by modifying treaties, creating competing sham mechanisms and manipulating
the existing institutions.
States are not monolithic. Many actors in our
governments, judiciaries, ombudsmen offices, academia, and civil society are heavily invested in protecting the national and international mechanisms
of human rights protection. Some of the democratic
leaders who govern us today remember that one day
they, too, could be on the receiving side of human
rights injustice.
Nevertheless, the future of the regional system of
human rights protection is not assured. Its current
shape and effectiveness could change for the worse—
that is, unless those who remain committed to the
development of a fair and strong regional human
rights system that provides a supranational recourse
to justice make their voices heard.
FOR SOURCE CI TATIONS SEE: W W W. AMERICASQUAR TERLY.ORG/KRS TICEVIC
SEARCHING FOR THE “DISAPPEARED” By Matthew Aho
On August 7, 1976, 21-year-old Hora- cio García Gastelú
disappeared from his
girlfriend’s Buenos
Aires home. In 1998,
the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
(EAAF) identified his
remains and determined that he had been
shot and disfigured with
dynamite along with 29
other victims in the so-called Fátima Massacre.
In the past 20 years,
Recovering the past for family members and justice.
forensic anthropology teams in Argentina,
Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru have
identified hundreds of
desaparecidos (
disappeared ones) throughout
the region. In the process, they will provide
long-needed evidence
to bring perpetrators
to trial for their crimes
since the region’s return
to democracy.
These independent teams combine
methods from physical anthropology with
forensic medicine, along
with analysis of dental
records and ballistics
to determine a victim’s
cause of death.
Techniques using
bone-based DNA were
developed to identify
victims in the aftermath
of the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks
and have become a
valuable tool worldwide.
In 2008, EAAF collected DNA samples
from more than 5,800
relatives of
desaparecidos in an effort to
establish a genetic data-base to match against
the bones of probable
victims. In June 2009,
the team announced
it had identified the
remains of 42 individuals whose DNA profile
matched a donor’s
blood sample.
In July 2008, a federal tribunal used
evidence collected
by EAAF, including
bone-based DNA, to
convict and sentence
two Argentine federal
police captains who
were responsible for the
Fátima Massacre.
