Forensic genetics as evidence of crimes against humanity: Its impact in appropriated children during the last state terrorism in Argentina´s criminal investigations

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the use of genetics as a means of evidence for the identification of persons in the investigation and trial of those accused of the appropriation of children of disappeared persons[***] during State terrorism in Argentina between 1976-1983. This is a qualitative research carried out through a flexible design whose sources of information were the foundations of the first five criminal court sentences handed down in Argentina in the period 1986-1993 against the appropriators of the daughters of victims of forced disappearance. The study revealed the perceptions of the judges involved, who assigned to forensic genetics the highest evidentiary values existing in the framework of a judicial investigation. These, in turn, showed the multidimensional and invaluable impact of this evidentiary measure for the judicial accreditation of filiation and as evidence against the perpetrators and those responsible for the abductions.

[***] The “sons and daughters” of enforced disappearance victims are enforced disappearance victims as well in the terms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. They are only distinguished to avoid unnecessary reiterations and for expositive purposes only.