Citizen Led Forensics: DNA & data-banking as technologies of disruption-a novel way to learn and intervene in the search for the disappeared in Mexico

墨西哥政府机构在2006年至2013年期间正式确认了121，683起暴力死亡事件。在同一时期，约有27，000人失踪，约15，000具尸体的身份仍然不明，因为该国没有国家数据库。在墨西哥，对政府当局的不信任是一种常态，因为法医学的做法一直不透明，有时被用来掩盖严重罪行肇事者的踪迹。政府对这场人道主义危机的敌对反应一再表明，问题不是一个可以简单地通过建设或加强法医技术能力来解决的问题，而是缺乏与公共机构和有组织犯罪之间现有联系有关的适当调查和努力，我们的项目将探索与法医学在墨西哥失踪人员搜寻中的使用有关的新形式的公民身份，并将提供宝贵的见解，对法医科学和DNA分析的破坏性方面。通过取证行动研究，我们希望探讨如果将法医技术（包括DNA）交给失踪者亲属、非政府法医专家和/或墨西哥感兴趣的公民，会发生什么情况。该项目旨在创建第一个公民主导的法医DNA数据库，作为积极干预墨西哥当前人道主义危机的一种方式。公民主导的法医数据库将被设计为一个移动的和PAR设备，通过已经与该项目合作的失踪者亲属的民间社会组织进行宣传。该项目将为1，500人提供DNA拭子试剂盒（约1，500人）。500个墨西哥家庭），并附有一套明确的说明，说明如何从脸颊拭子以及失踪人员的个人物品中收集DNA。在同一套DNA工具中，我们会要求参与调查的家庭提供其案件的书面陈述，他们在法医调查方面的经验（如果有的话），以及他们自亲属失踪以来所经历的个人叙述。学术文献，主要集中在欧盟和美国，仅将法医数据库的使用与国家监控和隐私问题联系起来。在这个项目中，我们的目标是超越这些常见的比喻，探讨如何公民领导的法医数据库可以成为一个工具，赔偿和真相发现的辩论。我们的项目打破了传统的（以国家为中心的）研究暴力和失踪的方式，因为它超越了受害者对正义的要求和负责提供失踪“真相”的专家之间的界限。它也是创新的，因为它汇集了生物遗传学和社会研究;从而提供了一个工具，开辟学术研究的新途径，以及人道主义和政治干预的基础见解。无论我们的公民主导的法医项目成功与否，我们的研究都有可能产生真正的变革性和全球性影响，考虑到我们可以帮助为法医研究和干预提供新的途径，在今天和未来的大规模暴行中。

Governmental institutions in Mexico have officially recognised 121,683 violent deaths in the period between 2006- 2013. During the same period around 27,000 disappearances occurred, and approximately 15,000 bodies remain unidentified, as there are no national databases in the country. In Mexico, distrust in governmental authorities is the norm, since the practice of forensic science has been opaque, and has sometimes been used to cover the tracks of the perpetrators of grave crimes. The inimical response of the government to this humanitarian crisis, has repeatedly shown that the problem is not one that can simply be solved by the construction or strengthening of forensic technical capacities, but rather the absence of due investigation and diligence that is related to the existing ties between public institutions and organised crime, as well as other normalised practices of corruption.Our project will explore new forms of citizenship related to the use of forensic science in the search for the missing in Mexico, and will also provide invaluable insights into the disruptive dimensions of Forensic Science and DNA profiling. Through Participatory Action Research (PAR), we wish to explore what would happen if forensic techniques (including DNA) were to be placed in the hands of the relatives of the disappeared, or in non-governmental forensic experts, and/or in interested citizens in Mexico. The project aims to create the first citizen-led Forensic DNA database as a way of positively intervening in the humanitarian crisis currently lived in Mexico.The citizen-led Forensic database will be designed as a mobile and PAR device, articulated through civil society organisations of relatives of the disappeared, already partnered with the project. The project will make DNA swab kits available for 1,500 people (approx. 500 Mexican families), accompanied by a clear set of instructions on how to collect DNA from cheek swabbing, as well as from the personal belongings of the missing person. In the same DNA Kit we would ask the participating families to include written accounts of their case, their experience with forensic investigations (if any), and personal narratives of what they have gone through since their relative(s) disappeared.Academic literature, mostly centred in EU and the US, solely links the use of forensic databases with state surveillance and issues of privacy. In this project we aim to move the debate beyond these common tropes to explore how citizen-led forensic databases can become a tool for reparation and truth finding. Our project breaks with traditional (state-centric) ways of researching about violence and disappearance, since it surpasses the boundaries between victims' claims for justice and the experts in charge of providing 'truth' about the missing. It is also innovative as it brings together biogenetic and social research; thus providing a tool to open novel avenues of academic inquiry, as well as grounded insights for humanitarian and political intervention. Regardless if our citizen-led forensic project succeeds or fails, our research has the potential to have a truly transformative and global impact, considering the fact that we can help to provide new pathways for forensic research and intervention, in the mass atrocities of today and of the future.