Protecting Mass Graves to advance Truth and Justice

Following conflict and gross human rights violations, victims have a right to know what happened to their loved ones and a right to justice. Across the world mass graves, often containing a multitude of human remains, are sites of human loss, suffering and unimaginable acts of cruelty. There are compelling reasons for why mass graves need to be protected. They hold evidence that is important for the criminal investigations needed to bring perpetrators to justice. At the same time, the families of the dead have a need and right to know what happened to their loved ones. This requires identification and repatriation of the bodies.

Despite guidelines for investigations of the missing, and legal obligations under international law, there is no coherent framework on how mass graves are legally protected and by whom. Nor is it clear what an effective investigation might entail. The consequences of not protecting and investigating mass graves are striking: survivors continue to suffer by not knowing what happened to their loved ones, which in itself constitutes inhumane and degrading treatment, and evidence to facilitate identifications and prosecutions might be lost. All too often, mass graves are disturbed and contaminated, compromising survivors' rights to truth and justice.

This fellowship will address the current gap in law, policy and procedure by addressing the question of how best to protect mass graves to secure truth and justice for survivors. The fellowship does this by bringing together experts and stakeholders from the forensic sciences, criminal investigations, legal profession, NGOs, international organisations, security sector and survivor groups. Under the leadership of Dr Klinkner, and through a process of consultations and round-table discussions with these experts, mass grave protection guidelines will be developed and, once finalised, translated and disseminated to stakeholders. Involving practitioners as expert-participants in the process of creating realistic guidelines will help gather support for the guidelines and, crucially, operationalise the guidelines through the institutions they belong to, their networks and spheres of influence. Furthermore, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is a project partner to this fellowship and through its expertise in communicating with and holding events for stakeholders will help disseminate the guidelines. This will ensure that they reach the organisations and institutions that are concerned with mass graves and survivor populations across the world.

Throughout the fellowship, Dr Klinkner, is supported by her institution Bournemouth University, a steering group, project partner ICMP and a research assistant. With her extensive expertise on mass graves, forensic evidence, international criminal law and transitional justice she will organise and direct the production, dissemination and validation of mass grave protection guidelines to help safeguard survivors' rights and advance justice needs.

The fundamental impact of the fellowship is geared towards individual and societal impact: Knowing the fate of what happened to their loved ones is a key priority of survivors and the project is designed to advance survivors' rights to truth and justice. Adequate protection of mass grave sites will help facilitate effective investigations that ensure survivor populations are kept informed about atrocity crimes, the identification of victims, return of human remains and who may be responsible for them. Evidence preservation is key for successful accountability processes and retributive justice efforts. Mass grave protection guidelines will ensure survivors' rights are respected and justice mechanisms supported. Securing this individual and societal impact is contingent on sound theoretical foundations (as developed in workpackages 1, 2 and 3 of the project) and two further impact spheres: that of (A) policy development and (B) practice on the ground.

(A) The fellowship will have policy impact on conflict and post-conflict states, including organisations and NGOs acting within those contexts, providing them with comprehensive guidelines to facilitate mass grave protection and effective investigations. Sustainable policy impact is achieved through the development of guidelines that are practicable and acceptable to all stakeholder groups involved which is why expert-participants are recruited for the purpose of creating the guidelines. Expert-participants are also crucial in facilitating the impact of the project, by disseminating the research findings and encouraging adoption of the mass grave protection guidelines.

(B) Sustainable guidelines will help practitioners on the ground, acting on behalf of civil society, international organisations, state authorities and victim groups, to effectively deal with mass graves resulting from gross human rights violations and conflict. It will equip practitioners with the necessary framework, clear process and legal guidance to work for the benefit of survivors, societies and justice needs.

Finally, the fellowship will have a transformative effect on the Fellow's career: it will allow for the realisation of guidelines and knowledge production that have motivated her continued research over the past decade. The fellowship will help consolidate her existing research expertise and pave the way for progression towards Associate Professor and the long-term goal of a full professorship. This career development will be assisted and guided by the the steering group comprising of Professor Louise Mallinder to provide methodology specific input; Professor Dinusha Mendis to advise on career-development; and Professor Roger Brownsword offering public policy and ethics support. The fellowship will foster further collaborative approaches with project partner the International Commission on Missing Persons and expert-participants for Dr Klinkner to conceptualise and direct. Such leadership and expanded project portfolio will also strengthen research capacity at Bournemouth University and is formally recognised by its career and promotion framework at professorial level ensuring the Fellow's progression. Current ideas include the development of improved training methods for mass grave protection and investigation through Virtual Reality Technology (based on the Fellow's previous experience on the use of gaming technology to enhance learning); and an application to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks (ITN) on Missing Persons to explore this subject through international, intersectoral and multi-disciplinary perspectives and collaboration (including project partner ICMP but expanding the network to include such organisations as the International Organization for Migration). Both these future project ideas are inherently impactful since they create much needed capacity. For the Fellow to lead on an ITN bid, progression to professorial level is indispensable.