Closure and dignity

In the aftermath of the dirty wars in Argentina, from 1976 to 1983, a group of anthropologists came together to create an organisation called Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (or Equipo Argentino de Antroplogia Forense, EAAF). Their mission was to account for the victims of the painful period in the country and find the remains of those who had perished in the period. EAAF was organised by local forensic anthropologists, and subsequently assisted by researchers from several countries, who found the mission admirable and necessary. The idea of EAAF was simple - to find information and remains of those who had disappeared and bring closure to the families of those who had died during the period of the dirty wars. Since the 1980s, organisations across the world, from Bosnia to El Salvador, Timor-Leste to South Africa, have used the methods developed by EAAF to bring dignity and closure. These approaches have also become essential to record and reflect. Institutions such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have joined forces in what is now broadly known as the field of humanitarian forensic action. Practitioners and scholars from diverse disciplines including law, public health, anthropology, archaeology, genetics, pathology and forensic sciences have contributed to the growth of the discipline to identify the dead and share the information with their families. New lab and imaging techniques along with integration with digital technologies have allowed for better analysis and sharing of information.

Today, the challenge of identifying the dead and find the remains of missing goes beyond a dark period of a particular country. In the recent past, efforts rooted in humanitarian forensics have also been applied to the situation in the Darien jungle (also known as the Darien gap), the land connection of swamp and jungle between Colombia and Panama. The Darien gap is particularly treacherous, not just because of the climate, environment and natural hazards but also because of armed local groups and cartels that operate in the region. As a result, many who reach the Darien gap die trying to cross the jungle. Many of those who perish are also often very poor, ill, malnourished, exhausted and exploited. Many are escaping violence from their countries and may not have any formal ID on them. They simply disappear. Yet - like everyone else - they too have families, friends and loved ones, who care about them and would want closure so they can mourn and grieve, and end the painful period of anxiety.

I did not know much about humanitarian forensic action and only learned about them recently at a seminar by a colleague, who is a physician and a humanitarian worker. As I listened to my physician colleague, I was struck by the simplicity of the idea. The notion that we all deserve to know when a loved one passes, and bring closure. The notion that everyone, regardless of their politics, faith or personal views, has loved ones, who care about them and love them, and that people deserve a decent burial, and a dignified end to their earthly presence.

In the world that we live in, rife with intolerance and narrow definitions of good or bad, we have perhaps lost a sense of our basic humanity. Somehow, in our minds, not only people who are on the other side of our shifting lines - whether those lines are political, ethnic, socio-economic, religious or something else - have no reason to exist, it is their families that are denied dignity as well: the dignity to know, the dignity to bury and the dignity to grieve. But the world, and our communities, are not better off by this denial. We are better off when we recognise, acknowledge and fight for every family's dignity, their search for their loved ones, and their fundamental right to heal.