Artículo: "Science and Harm in Human Rights Cases"

Reporte elaborado por Oswaldo Ruiz-Chiriboga.

En la revista The Yale Law Journal (Vol. 125, 2016, pp. 331-342) se publicó un artículo de Eden Medina e Ilan Sandberg W. titulado “Science and Harm in Human Rights Cases: Preventing the Revictimization of Families of the Disappeared”. A continuación un extracto de la Introducción del artículo: 

“International human rights law and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights obligate states to investigate cases of forced disappearance (also called enforced disappearance) until the victim has been found and identified. However, neither specifies the precise mechanisms that states must use to comply with this obligation. Rather, the state’s commitment to international law is to guarantee that its agents will honor human rights principles and conduct due diligence in their investigations, regardless of the methods used.  

The motivation for this obligation is to end the uncertainty that families face, make the events of past atrocities public, and, in some cases, collect evidence for criminal proceedings. However, fact finding as a means of reparation can also lead to the revictimization of those affected, thereby causing a secondary harm. Since science and technology can assist with fact finding, they are commonly viewed as furthering processes of truth, justice, and reparation by advancing knowledge of human rights violations committed in the past. Yet, scientific findings can also be at odds with state aims and obligations and can result in the serious secondary harm of revictimization.”