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Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense

Jr. Mello Franco 341 Jesús María Lima, Peru Contact: Jose Pablo Baraybar Tel: (511) 424-5490

  

• Mission
• Advocacy
• Social Change
• Information/ News from EPAF
  • Press Releases
  • Reports
• Dissemination
  • AdvocacyNet
  • In the Media Highlights
• Networking

 

Mission

Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense (or Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team – EPAF) applies forensic anthropology to the search for forcibly disappeared persons during the period of internal political conflict from 1982- 2000. EPAF begun 1997, when a group of Peruvian professionals working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia decided to apply their expertise in their own country. It is their final goal to restore the identity of the thousands of missing Peruvians that rest in hidden burial sites across the country.

Advocacy

• EPAF is looking to develop workshops on forensic anthropology given to judges, prosecutors and NGOs; so that they can gain access to the information and skills needed to understand and adopt efficient work strategies using forensic sciences, and improve communication between forensic anthropologists and judiciary agents in their joint work in the forensic investigation of human rights violations.

• The latest official number for documented disappearances in Peru is 13,721, a much larger number than the one originally projected. Still, EPAF believes the number will continue to rise. There is no mean to develop a real, effective strategy for the search of the missing without an approach to the real number, which is why EPAF is working to consolidate all data sources into one list and to collect ante mortem data on each missing person.

• In order to establish the real number of missing people in Peru, and to collect ante mortem data from these victims, EPAF is working to access the far regions that weren’t reached by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and in many cases by no other organization.

• EPAF is also working to establish a database for the disappeared/deceased that will enable to recover and maintain the biological memory of the missing persons, and to cross antemortem, postmortem and genetic data from all the missing persons and remains found during the investigation of Human Right violations.

• The Canines Searching for the Truth (CST) activity focuses on the use of highly trained human remains detection dogs to locate human remains at clandestine burial sites in Peru to support forensic investigations linked to human rights violations. EPAF has obtained dogs for this purpose and has begun using them to search for remains.

Social Change

• EPAF was the first to introduce international standards for a Forensic Anthropology Investigation in Peru, during its intervention in the case of the Japanese Ambassador’s Residence Kidnapping, in the year 2001.
• Workshops and constant interaction with the families of the victims have allowed them to participate in the process in a different level, and helped them develop conscience of their right to the restitution of their loved ones.
• With EPAF’s impulse, the first Regional Office for the Missing Persons – OPD has been created this year by the Regional Government of Ayacucho, one of the regions most affected by political violence.
• Even though there are still many far regions EPAF is trying to reach, some of them have been reached, and people who had never spoken has been able to do it.

Information/ News from EPAF

• Press Releases

EPAF publishes news through “Correo EPAF,” a monthly publication distributed to the Human Rights network in Peru.

• Reports

Ciencia Forense y Derechos Humanos: Una Propuesta para la Investigación Forense Eficaz de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en el Perú

Manual para la investigación eficaz ante el hallazgo de fosas con restos humanos en el Perú

De los Balcanes a los Andes

Investigaciones Forenses y Derechos Humanos

Dissemination

• AdvocacyNet

October 2, 2007
Forensic Team Tracks Disappeared Peruvians as Fujimori Returns to Face Justice

• In the Media Highlights

February 27, 2008
Unmarked Graves Haunt Peru Despite Fujimori Trial
Reuters

December 10, 2007
Peru struggles with its dark past
BBC News

November 21, 2007
Perros Con Narices Finas
El Commercio

EPAF has recently presented its report on the case of the death and disappearance of nine students and a professor of La Cantuta University, one of the most important cases against the former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori.

Networking

Outreach Partners

• Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
• Asociación Nacional de Familiares Secuestrados, Detenidos, y Desaparecidos del Perú
• Asociación Paz y Esperanza
• Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos
• Centro de Atención Psicosocial
• Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social
• Consejo Nacional de Reparaciones
• Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos
• Creative Learning
• Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala
• Fundación Ecuménica para el Desarrollo y la Paz
• Instituto de Defensa Legal
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología Forense
• Mesa de Concertación para la lucha contra la pobreza
• Office of the Public Prosecutor
• Office of the Judiciary
• Ombudsman Office – Peru
• Project Counselling Service
• Red Para la Infancia
• Regional Office for the Missing Persons - Ayacucho
• Washington Office on Latin America

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