Physicians for Human Rights
Using science and medicine to stop human rights violationsBlog
Colombia: Fair Bernal Porras Case Update
Earlier this month, PHR reported on the issue of “false positives”; civilians who were kidnapped and executed by Colombian military forces with the intent of identifying them as either members of the FARC guerrilla movement or other illegal armed groups. Specifically, we focused on the case of Mr. Fair Bernal Leonardo Porras, a 26-year old builder who was forcibly disappeared from a rural town in northern Colombia. Since that time, the judicial process has continued to move forward.
In Colombia, Evidence Proves Extrajudicial Executions by Military
In 2008, the Colombian government acknowledged the extrajudicial executions of 11 young men from a working class municipality near Bogota. These victims are among those known as “false positives”; civilians who were kidnapped by Colombian military forces with the intent of identifying them as either members of the FARC guerrilla movement or other illegal armed groups. This practice allows the military to inflate the number of enemies they’ve killed.
Science and Justice in Afghanistan
With the backing of PHR, the Afghanistan Forensic Science Organization (AFSO) was officially launched in Kabul on March 7, 2012. The AFSO was created by eighteen participants of PHR’s 2010 forensic training program in Afghanistan, and funded through PHR’s International Forensic Program.
Witnessing Justice for Victims of Karadžić
On January 30 and 31, 2012, Dr. William Haglund, former director of PHR's International Forensic Program and head of the forensic team which exhumed mass graves in Srebenica, Bosnia in 1995, testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. PHR Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin was there.
PHR in Colombia: Supporting Justice and Human Rights through Forensics
In August, International Forensic Program (IFP) Director Stefan Schmitt and two of the program’s expert consultants, Dr. Robert C. Bux and Attorney Nery Osorio, traveled to Bogota, Colombia as part of their ongoing project with local partner organization EQUITAS to support the independent forensic investigation of cases of forced disappearance and extrajudicial executions.
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