A/HRC/15/26 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 24 August 2010 Original: English Human Rights Council Fifteenth session Agenda items 2 and 3 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to the truth and on forensic genetics and human rights* Summary The present report is submitted pursuant to resolutions 9/11 and 10/26 of the Human Rights Council, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “to prepare a report, to be presented to the Council at its fifteenth session, on the use of forensic experts in case of gross violations of human rights with a view to identifying trends and best practices in this regard” and “to request information from States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations on best practices in the use of forensic genetics for identifying victims of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law with a view to considering the possibility of drafting a manual that may serve as a guide for the application of forensic genetics, including, where appropriate, the voluntary creation and operation of genetic banks, with appropriate safeguards”. In response to a note verbale from the Office of the High Commissioner dated 8 February 2010, information was received from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkmenistan. The report also benefitted from the contributions and analysis of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) which coordinated for the purpose of this report the contributions of the DNA working group of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes, the DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic * GE.10-15594 Late submission.