International Forensic Program

Reuniting Families Separated by War

PHR’s Work with Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos

© PHR    

Born during the war in El Salvador, the young woman in this photo was sent abroad for adoption against her family's will. The family reunion shown here was made possible by a PHR forensic project involving DNA testing.

During the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s, thousands of children were separated from their parents. Many were forcibly taken from their families by the military, while others were lost in the chaos of combat. The majority of these children were placed in orphanages or adopted by families outside El Salvador. An estimated 2,300 were adopted by families in the United States and other countries.

Following the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992, biological families began to search for their missing children. Many of these children, now entering adulthood and haunted by questions surrounding their past, have begun to search for their birth relatives, often with the support of their adopted families.

For several years, PHR has worked with a local NGO in El Salvador, Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos (Pro-Búsqueda), to reunite these families. Using state-of-the-art DNA technology and psychosocial techniques, the two organizations matched hundreds of children with their biological families.

There are still hundreds of active cases in which children or families have not yet been located. Four to five new reports of missing children are received by PHR or Pro-Búsqueda every month.

Beginnings

In 1994, after being contacted by Pro-Búsqueda founder Father Jon Cortina, Eric Stover, the former Executive Director of PHR, visited the organization in San Salvador and launched the DNA Reunification Project. Together with pathologist Robert Kirschner, the former Director of PHR's International Forensic Program, Stover collected the first DNA samples that led to identifications. In 1996, Stover brought the DNA Reunification Project with him to UC Berkeley where he became Director of the Human Rights Center. Kirschner continued to support the project until his death in 2003.

In the early years of the project, DNA analysis was done by the scientists at Professor Mary-Claire King's laboratory in Seattle and the DNA Laboratory at the Reproductive Genetics Institute of Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago. PHR contributed funding and staff for the next phase of the project, and in 2003, the network of participating organizations, which included Pro-Búsqueda, PHR, and the Human Rights Center at UC-Berkeley was expanded to include a team of volunteer DNA analysts from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Jan Bashinski Laboratory. The DOJ Bashinski Laboratory, which was brought into the project by Eric Stover, offered to type DNA samples from biological parents and compile the genetic profiles into a DNA Database that would be owned by Pro-Búsqueda.

Also in 2003, Bill Haglund, former director of PHR's International Forensic Program, contacted IFP Consultant Henriëtte Stratmann requesting that she design a questionnaire for interviews with biological families and a database to store the information and keep track of DNA samples collected. The family kinship database she designed is used in conjunction with the DNA database to analyze kinship relations between abducted/adopted Salvadoran children and their relatives.

Transition

During a press conference in July 2006, the database, which contained 807 genetic profiles of families searching for their children, was officially turned over by Human Rights Center at UC-Berkeley, the California Department of Justice Jan Bashinski Crime Lab, and Physicians for Human Rights to the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos. The handover of the database is expected to advance the confirmation of DNA matches as well as the healing process of those piecing together their broken histories and identities.

According to Pro-Búsqueda's website, as of December 2006, 323 of the 787 (41.0%) cases registered had been resolved.

The Work of Pro-Búsqueda

The Investigative and Legal Assistance Team of Pro-Búsqueda searches for children disappeared during the armed conflict and presents legal cases before national and international courts. If you are the guardian of a Salvadoran child who may have disappeared during the 1980-1992 civil war, or if you are a Salvadoran child/adult who was separated from your family during the war, Pro-Búsqueda may be able to help. If you contact Pro Pro-Búsqueda, they will review the information and history you provide and determine whether to open an investigative case. Further information about the mission and work of Pro-Búsqueda is available on the organization's website:
http://probusqueda.org/index.php?&newlang=eng

Para visitar el sitio de Pro-Busqueda en español, haz un clic en el siguiente vínculo:
http://probusqueda.org/