April 3, 2009, Ayacucho, Peru: The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) is teaming up with the International Committee of the Red Cross to offer forensic investigation training workshops to Peruvian legal professionals working in areas affected by political violence.

The workshops are part of EPAF’s goal to achieve a better understanding among the different actors (legal experts, technical experts, victims’ families, authorities, and media) investigating the disappearances and serious human rights violations that occurred during Peru’s long internal conflict. The conflict, which lasted from 1980 until 2000, left an estimated 69,000 dead at the hands of the Shining Path, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and the Peruvian police and armed forces.

The workshops will be offered from April through June for employees of the Office of the Prosecutor and Office of the Judiciary. The first workshop will be conducted in Ayacucho, on April 17-19.

Each workshop will be accompanied by a forum on forensic investigation and human rights open to the general public. The first one will be held in Ayacucho on Thursday, April 16.

EPAF, a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP), is also trying to increase awareness of the disappeared and their families through a campaign to support the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

So far, 80 countries have signed the UN convention, but only 10 have ratified it. EPAF recently joined the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearance (ICAED), and is collecting signatures to urge the Peruvian Government to ratify the convention.