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The Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center (HHRRC), an organization within the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) supported by the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE), hosted an in-person poster session where attendees had the opportunity to meet HHRRC researchers and learn about the application of contemporary forensic science and forensic medicine principles to global humanitarian or human rights projects requiring special forensic assistance.
This in-person poster session was hosted at the 77th Annual AAFS Scientific Conference in Baltimore, Maryland and attendance required conference registration. Digital PDF posters along with short audio/video presentations from HHRRC poster session participants are accessible below and will remain archived on the website as a virtual library for future viewing purposes.
Poster Session Details
Date
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
6:00pm - 8:00pm ET
Location
Room: Hilton Key Ballroom Foyer
77th Annual AAFS Scientific Conference
Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland
*Attendance required conference registration.
Date
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Materials became available at 6:00pm ET.
Location
Digital PDF posters along with short audio/video presentations from HHRRC poster session participants are accessible below and will remain archived on the website as a virtual library for future viewing purposes.
Poster Presentations
Click on the poster title below to jump to that presentation. An asterisk (*) denotes the primary author.
POSTER 1
Death in Flight: Exploring Migration-Related Fatalities in Greece
Despoina E. Flouri,* Sophia R. Mavroudas, Christina Karydi, Antonios Papadomanolakis, Konstantinos Moraitis, & Elena F. Kranioti
ABSTRACT
Case files of presumed and confirmed migration-related fatalities were collected from three Greek medicolegal departments. When available, demographic information, postmortem interval, and method of identification for each migration-related fatality were recorded. Geolocational mapping was attempted for recovery and depositional locations. An indicative profile was constructed to help distinguish between migrant and nonmigrant unknown remains.
POSTER 2
International Capacity-Building Workshop for Human Rights Defenders and Clinicians (Forensic Doctors and Psychologists/Psychiatrists) on Techniques for Collecting Physical and Psychological Evidence of Torture
Jean C. Fogno,* Hilaire Kamga, & Bruno Wembe
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center project is to organize a capacity-building workshop for human rights defenders and clinicians (forensic doctors and psychologists/psychiatrists) on techniques for collecting physical and psychological evidence of torture cases; techniques for monitoring, documenting, reporting, and redressing cases of torture; and the modalities for referring cases to international mechanisms for the fight against torture. Workshop participants are trained in monitoring, documentation, reporting, and prosecution, as well as techniques to collect physical and psychological evidence in torture cases to enable them to fully understand the value of these techniques.
POSTER 3
Toward a More Accurate Enumeration of Migrant Mortality Along the United States–Mexico Border: A Definition and First Count
Alberto Giordano,* Nicholas Herrmann, Molly Miranker, Rachel Daniell, Molly A. Kaplan, Veronica Flores-Guillen, Jasmine Hernandez, Heather Edgar, Kate Spradley, & Cate E. Bird
ABSTRACT
The Migrant Mortality Mapping Project (M3P2) is a National Science Foundation–sponsored initiative to create a web portal mapping the phenomenon of migrant deaths at the United States–Mexico border. This poster presents the criteria used to identify migrant deaths and a series of maps illustrating the extent of the phenomenon.
POSTER 4
“They Are Our Parents”—The Identification and Mapping of Mass Graves Resulting from Operation Condor in Paraguay
Jacob A. Harris,* Adriana Sartorio, Rogelio Goiburú, & Katelyn Bolhofner
ABSTRACT
In the 1970s, a coordinated campaign of political repression—Operation Condor—resulted in thousands of individuals “disappearing” across South America. This poster provides an update on the implementation of advanced geophysical survey and Bayesian probability methods to locate and map unmarked mass graves of victims of Operation Condor in Paraguay.
POSTER 5
Capacity-Building Workshop on the Potential of Stable Isotopes in Deceased Migrant Identification in Tanzania
Isaac Onoka* & Tiffany B. Fracchia
ABSTRACT
A 3-day workshop was held in Tanga, Tanzania, to discuss the humanitarian need for identification of deceased migrants. Isotope analysis is a proposed tool to provide information about geographic travel history and leads for identification. This poster presents outcomes of the workshop and capacity building for forensic isotope analysis in Tanzania.
POSTER 6
Advocating for the Dead: An Interdisciplinary Path Toward Restructuring the Medicolegal Death Investigation System in the Texas Borderlands
Courtney C. Siegert,* Carina Marques, Molly A. Kaplan, Victoria M. Swenson, Kate Spradley, Nora Salinas, Vanessa Alaniz, Dina Nunez, Eddie Canales, Cate E. Bird, & Jason Wiersema
ABSTRACT
Justices of the peace are the predominant medicolegal authority across the Texas Borderlands, but most are ill equipped to manage the overwhelming number of migrant deaths in their jurisdictions. This poster contextualizes the development of the Working Group to Develop Regional Identification Centers to improve migrant decedent identification.
POSTER 7
Restoring Personhood and Dignity to the Ancestors in the East Marshall Street Well: Community-Engaged Research in Forensic Science
Tal Simmons,* Baneshwar Singh, & Filipa Simão
ABSTRACT
The descendant community set research goals for using DNA and anthropology to reassociate commingled remains from a 19th century anatomy pit, elucidating these individuals’ ancestry, phenotype, health, and life history. They were adults and children, enslaved or paupers, whose graves were robbed and their remains used for dissection and surgical practice in a medical school.
POSTER 8
Restoring the Voices of the Forgotten: The Hunan LongYue Peace and Public Welfare Center’s Efforts to Reunite World War II National Revolutionary Army Soldiers With Their Homeland and Families in China
Chunlong Sun,* Hao Yu, Derek Congram, & Lei Hou
ABSTRACT
The Hunan LongYue Peace and Public Welfare Center, a Chinese nongovernmental organization, is devoted to locating, identifying, and respectfully repatriating the remains of World War II National Revolutionary Army soldiers, honoring forgotten heroes and reuniting families separated by war. The Hunan LongYue Peace and Public Welfare Center reconnects legacies of bravery with their homeland, bridging past and present through work in remote regions.
POSTER 9
Humanitarian Forensic Action Using a Holistic Anthropological Approach
Victoria M. Swenson,* Courtney C. Siegert, Chloe P. McDaneld, Ivanna Robledo, Abi Jose, Molly A. Kaplan, Kelsey Fox, Zoe Becker, Kate Spradley, Carina Marques, Aracely Balderas, Gabriella Rios Bradley, Victoria Rosas, Isabella Zapata, Amerika Garcia Grewal, Mike Garcia, Nora Salinas, Vanessa Alaniz, Dina Nunez, Eddie Canales, Mercedes Doretti, Cate E. Bird, & Jason Wiersema
ABSTRACT
Operation Identification (OpID) and collaborators held a 2-day mass fatality preparedness and community-building workshop in Eagle Pass, Texas. This poster presents the importance of local, federal, state, and international collaborations to collect postmortem data from unidentified human remains along the United States–Mexico border.
Check out photos from the 2025 In-Person Poster Session!
Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence event was provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this event are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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