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DNA Profiling:


Australian Journal of Human Rights
Article on DNA and the criminal justice system

DNA Forensics
"In the last decade or so, DNA forensics has become a tool of unparalleled importance in law enforcement. The idea behind DNA profiling is that there are some three billion separate pieces of information in our genome, and each of us has a different DNA profile. Any biological material we leave behind can incriminate (or exonerate) us. The public and the media have characterised DNA profiling as the greatest advance in forensic science since the introduction of fingerprints a century ago. (Interestingly, fingerprints may be more unique than DNA -- identical twins' fingerprints are different, while their DNA is identical.)"

The European Initiative for Biotechnology Education.
"DNA Profiling comprises information and discussion questions about DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling, with instructions for a practical simulation. The Unit is designed to stimulate debate in the classroom. DNA fingerprinting, especially its use in criminal databases, raises important issues for society. Some of the more frequently-raised concerns are examined. An introductory section provides some background information on DNA profiling and its development. This is followed by some case studies and explanations of modern applications of the technique, and its reliability. Questions that can be used to stimulate debate in the classroom about the application of DNA profiling are also provided. The remainder of this Unit is a practical simulation using DNA gel electrophoresis."

Forensic Anthropology:

Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team E.A.A.F.
"Since it was founded in 1984, EAAF’s work in Argentina has focused on investigating cases of persons who were disappeared during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). In 1998, as in previous years, EAAF concentrated much of its energy on working with a variety of sources of documentation, such previously inaccessible, which contain a great deal of information about the disappearances. EAAF has also been creating new data bases that allow us to store and analyze this information…"


Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team E.A.A.F.: Guatemala

"Over the past four decades, more people have been forcibly disappeared in Guatemala than in any other Latin American nation. Since 1960, when civil war broke out in Guatemala, approximately 45 000 disappearances have been reported — an extremely high figure for a country with a current population of only ten million. In addition to the disappearances, approximately 100 000 people were killed in other ways during the conflict…."

Exhuming the Truth

"The Guatemala Forensic Anthropology Team, working under the authority of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), will begin gathering evidence this week from a remote mass grave site in Guatemala. The team will initiate their investigations on December 8 in Acul, established in 1983 by the government as the first "model" village in the country after the original town was destroyed by the Guatemalan army…"

Forensics: Discovery Channel Canada
"The practice of a forensic anthropologist is a bit different from what we normally associate with anthropology. Forensic anthropologists deal in bones, and when skeletal remains or badly decomposed bodies are found, they're called in. They apply their understanding of the human skeletal variations between individuals to criminal and civil investigations, determining not only who was killed, but how."

Forensic Science Web sites
A list of other links for further investigation into the study of forensic anthropology.

Minesota State University E-Museum
"Clyde Snow is perhaps the most famous Forensic Anthropologists in the world today. He prefers to call his work, "osteobiography" saying, "there is a brief but very useful and informative biography of an individual contained within the skeleton, if you know how to read it" (Current Biography 52)."

Physicians for Human Rights
Since 1986, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has conducted fact-finding investigations and research on human rights violations and their health effects in over fifty countries. PHR utilizes the skills and knowledge of the medical and forensic sciences and the tenets of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Rwanda: Stefan Schmits Human Rights and Forensic Anthropology Page

The first three months of 1996 I spent in Rwanda. Physicians for Human Rights had invited me to form part and assist the United Nation's Senior Forensic Consultant Dr. William Haglund and the Director of Forensic Programs from PHR, Bob Kirschner, M.D. in organizing a team of forensic scientists that would exhume and analyze the remains of victims that had been massacred in April of 1995 in the small town of Kibuye.


Information Technology and Statistics


Policy or panic, flight of the Albanians
An overview of Kosovar Refugee migration to Morina, Albania:

Political Killings in Kosova/Kosovo March-June 1999
"A Cooperative Report by the Central and East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association and the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science"

Refuge Flow Patterns in Kosovo, March-May 1999
"Much of the continuing debate about the March – June 1999 war between NATO and Yugoslavia turns on how many people left their homes in particular places and at certain times. Solid information about the flow of refugees out of Kosovo would help investigators to link patterns in the flow to patterns of NATO bombing, Yugoslav strategic plans for "cleansing" Kosovo, and Yugoslav and irregular troop deployments. At its heart, this debate is about whether refugees left their homes fleeing NATO attacks and fighting between the KLA and Yugoslav forces, or whether they left their homes after being threatened, assaulted, and robbed by Yugoslav police, army, and irregular units.

Remote Sensing:

Project on Satellite Imagery and the News Media
A journalists' guide to remote sensing resources on the Internet.
Created by Christopher Simpson at the American University School of
Communications.


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