The non-profit, world-renowned Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its commitment to the applied sciences and victim justice. The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and National University of Quilmes (UNQ) put forth the nomination.
The EAAF was founded at the insistence of the late Clyde Snow, a well-known U.S. anthropologist who has examined the remains of John F. Kennedy, victims of John Wayne Gacy, King Tutankhamun, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and Dr. Josef Mengele. In the early 1980s, Snow brought attention to the mass graves of civilians in Argentina who were executed during the nation’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
Snow spent five years training many of the founding members of EAAF, which went on to essentially pioneer the use of forensic archaeology and forensic anthropology in the documentation of human rights violations.
EEAF has worked in support of justice for human rights victims in more than 60 countries, addresses conflicts such as wars, forced disappearances, demographic violence, drug and human trafficking, organized crime and more.
The non-profit has participated in very high-profile investigations, including search and identification efforts on behalf of apartheid victims in South Africa since 2007. In El Salvador, they unearthed thousands of victims’ bones from the 1981 Mozote massacre that was perpetrated by the Salvadoran Army.
According to Global Voices, two of EAAF’s most important international investigations have occurred in Mexican territory. EAAF has searched—and is still searching—for the remains of 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College, who were forcibly abducted and disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Cocula and Iguala in collusion with organized crime. The EAAF investigation garnered controversy because it contradicted the official version given by the Mexican government.
Along with the organization Justice for Our Daughters, EAAF conducted another Mexico-based forensic investigation to bring justice to hundreds of women who were killed during the 1990s in Juarez, a city bordering El Paso, Texas.
In its home country, EAAF has also worked to identify Argentine soldiers buried with no name in the Darwin Military Cemetery.
“The EAAF’s most valued fundamental principles are, above all, a respect for the wishes of the victims’ families and their communities, and an attention to scientific precision which has won them great international prestige over their 36-year history,” Global Voices wrote. “They are known for their considerable sensitivity through every step of the process, from the initial report and investigation to the exhumation and identification of remains and resolution of the case.”
Global Voices contributed information to this report.
Photo: Exhumation tasks with EAAF members, Cyprus, 2006. Credit: EAAF Facebook