Following Antigone: Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights Investigations
An EAAF- WITNESS Video Production
"Antigone" is the title of a Greek play, written 2,500 years ago by Sophocles, about a woman trying to bury the remains of her brother, challenging the orders of Creonte, king of Thebes.
EAAF's first documentary, Following Antigone shows various aspects of the application of forensic sciences to human rights investigations. It was produced in association with WITNESS, a US-based NGO that provides video cameras and technical support on video advocacy to human rights organizations around the world. The thirty-seven minute video introduces the world of forensic anthropology and archaeology and their use in human rights cases. It also serves as an initial training tool for the legal, human rights and forensic communities of professionals and students.
Using footage recorded by EAAF members in Argentina, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti and East Timor during the past eighteen years, the documentary covers the entire process of investigation, including historical, archaeological, and laboratory methods, testimonies of relatives of the victims, and reburial ceremonies of the remains of their loved ones many years after they died. We touch upon relationships with families of victims, local judiciaries, human rights organizations, and special commissions of inquiry. We also describe the ways in which forensic evidence can be used in trials, issues of reburial, and the rectification of historical records.
The documentary was conceived as an introduction for several kinds of audiences. For courts, judges, human rights lawyers and activists, associations of families of the victims, and students it will provide information about how forensic sciences can further human rights investigations. It will also help to familiarize these groups with rights violations in other parts of the world, and the kinds of challenges and successes that can go hand-in-hand with investigating them.
For forensic doctors, crime scene investigators and other specialists who do not have experience in the human rights field but who are interested in it, the video will familiarize them with the differences between human rights and "normal" criminal investigations. One of the major differences is that in human rights cases, the state and the judiciary have either failed to investigate, or were directly complicit in covering up the crimes under investigation. In most cases, no official investigation exists outside of a few bureaucratic files. Understandably, the relatives of victims often do not trust local experts or the legal system. As a result, forensic teams working in human rights cases must frequently undertake varied and additional tasks that would not fall into their job descriptions as forensic experts in routine criminal cases.
Another difference shown in the video is the collaboration between EAAF and local human rights organizations in gathering the background information necessary for resolving cases. Usually these are the organizations that are doing the work that the judiciary and the state have not done; they have the closest contact with witnesses and families of victims, and have done the most in-depth investigation of the case. This video vividly helps to transmit the way in which their collaboration in the work is crucial.
The video also shows the solace and difficulties of the mourning process for the families of victims in cases where the remains of loved ones are recovered and buried twenty years or more after their death. Footage of reburial ceremonies in Argentina and El Salvador illustrate this passage.
Court scenes of the Junta trials in Argentina where forensic evidence was introduced are also shown in the video.
Finally, in many of the countries where EAAF works, physical evidence is not frequently used or is misused in criminal investigations. This video is an introductory overview of how forensic sciences can help in criminal investigations, promoting and explaining the use of physical evidence in human rights investigations and the judicial processes addressing them. In order to purchase the video, please go to: www.witness.org/store.
EAAF distributed the video to more than 200 individuals, associations and institutions who could benefit from access to Following Antigone. These primarily include international NGOs with which EAAF works; forensic anthropologists and pathologists, crime scene investigators and students in these disciplines; judges, special commissions of inquiry, international tribunals planning to use forensic anthropology and archaeology in human rights work; human rights organizations and association of relatives of human rights victims as well as communities where EAAF works or has been invited to initiate an investigation.
To Order Copies
If you want to order copies, please, contact Witness at: http://www.witness.org/store.