A/HRC/15/26 all the available information in Argentina regarding the current condition of the skeletal remains of exhumed corpses, corresponding to excavations carried out with the aim of locating persons who disappeared during the military dictatorship. 5. One of the aims of the Register is to establish an inventory of the previously found or newly unearthed skeletal remains that are known to be, or are allegedly, those of disappeared persons who were victims of the illegal repression carried out by State terrorism, but who have yet to be identified, or whose relatives are not known. A further, parallel aim is to create a database in which this information can be classified and systematically ordered. 6. In Spain, the forensic community provides expert services at the request of the courts and may only intervene in open cases, unless a court order is issued. This situation does not restrict the experts’ activities, since they provide their reports to the relevant court, whether at the behest of the judicial authorities or any of the parties involved in the case. The fact that the forensic community has freedom to act with complete independence, to the best of its knowledge and belief, makes it a key instrument in building cases against persons. This approach to reporting is not confined to living persons and can also be applied to the recently deceased and even to less recent deaths. 7. The forensic community refreshes and updates its knowledge base through continuous training, which forms the cornerstone of the community’s work and involves constant contact with scientific experts, which has led it to engage in a series of activities both within Spain and abroad. This manner of conducting expert work, in this case in the area of human rights, is no accident, but the result of a series of action plans relating to forensic activities, which now reflect best practices in that field. 8. The Ministry of Justice has worked with the Centre for Legal Studies to develop a procedure for the training of forensic experts, which includes the following: (a) training courses; (b) protocols for procedures to be followed; (c) professional seminars; and (d) comprehensive forensics management tools. 9. In Peru, the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Attorney-General’s Office comprises a group of experienced forensic experts with a variety of specializations. The experts are responsible for intervening in cases involving serious human rights violations and are members of the Specialized Forensic Team (EFE). They are responsible for searching for, recovering and analysing the remains and related personal effects of persons who have disappeared in circumstances characterized as serious violations of human rights. 10. The Institute of Forensic Medicine is currently standardizing the methodologies used to search for, recover and analyse the remains of disappeared persons, not only in circumstances characterized by serious violations of human rights but also in so-called ordinary circumstances. 11. Given that the cases solved by the Specialized Forensic Team (EFE) are of national importance, it reports directly to the national headquarters of the Institute of Forensic Medicine. This enables the Institute to respond promptly to requests from any prosecutor specialized in human rights at the national level. EFE never acts alone unless it is asked to do so by a prosecutor specialized in human rights law. As such, EFE works in coordination and conjunction with the prosecutor in charge of any given investigation. 12. In Portugal, it is the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal which has the legal competence to perform forensic examinations within the national territory. The Institute is autonomous and independent, fulfils the international requirements on forensic genetic examinations, and has applied for many years the quality controls promoted by the International Society for Forensic Genetics. The Institute also gives judicial support and has representation in the European DNA Profiling Group. 5