A/HRC/4/103
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V. TRAINING AND CAPACITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES
14.
OHCHR has provided training to the national staff of truth and reconciliation
commissions established in Peru and Sierra Leone. In response to a request of the Government
of Peru and of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 10 national experts were
recruited and trained in forensic investigative techniques in the period April-July 2002 to enable
them to work with the TRC investigative teams in various provinces. With the support of the
International Centre for Transitional Justice, a two-week consultation on anthropology and
forensic medicine was held in June and July 2002. OHCHR continued to support these experts
when the mandate of TRC was extended through 2003.
15.
In Sierra Leone, OHCHR provided a forensic team to TRC to conduct an assessment of
mass graves and execution sites and provide training on basic principles of anthropology and
forensic techniques to participants from government agencies and NGOs in June and July 2002.
The team visited 52 sites and made recommendations on how to preserve them for future
investigations.
16.
OHCHR provided support to the United Nation Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA) and Afghan authorities in addressing transitional justice issues. In January and
February 2002, OHCHR fielded a short mission to look into allegations of mass graves in the
Mazar region. Responding to a request by UNAMA, OHCHR organized forensic investigation
and needs-assessment missions in the period April to May 2002 to Bamyan, Mazar and
Sheberghan. This mission included a preliminary assessment of Afghan national forensic
capacity in Kabul. OHCHR conducted a preliminary forensic investigation in December 2002,
to review plans for a large-scale investigation into two sites in the Mazar area in response to a
request from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and UNAMA. Security
concerns prevented further investigation of the two gravesites in the north and a broader strategy
was adopted in 2006. In June 2006, an assessment mission was fielded to examine the
possibility of conducting forensic investigations of mass graves in Afghanistan within the
framework of the Action Plan of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on
Peace, Reconciliation and Justice.
17.
In Mexico, OHCHR organized, in coordination with the Federal Attorney-General’s
Office, workshops on effective investigation and documentation of torture and the Istanbul
Protocol. These workshops provided medical and psychological professionals and public
institutions responsible for investigating, documenting and prosecuting cases of torture with
information about the application of the Istanbul Protocol as a model for investigating torture at
the national and local levels. Participants included doctors and psychologists from local
prosecutors’ offices, civil society organizations dealing with cases of torture and mistreatment,
and forensic personnel from state human rights commissions. The first workshop took place in
Monterrey, Nuevo León, in September 2005, in coordination with Physicians for Human Rights
and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). Similar workshops
were held in Morelia, Michoacán, Oaxaca and Chihuahua. In addition, three seminars were
organized in Mexico City, León, Guanajuato and Querétaro in 2005 and 2006 to generate
discussion on the creation of a national torture prevention mechanism, which is provided for
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