Chile
According to a report published in February 1991 by the Chilean National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, 2,296 people were murdered during the period of military rule from 1973 to 1990. Subsequent estimates have put the number of missing as high as 3,400.
On 15 May 2006, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Human Rights was established to improve the pace and efficiency of work on resolving missing persons cases from the dictatorship.
The Forensic Medical Service (Servicio Medico Legal, SML), which operates under the Ministry of Justice, is responsible for identifying the missing and determining possible cause of death. The SML receives technical support in the analysis of human remains from foreign institutions including ICMP, which also participates in the Presidential Commission.
In June 2008, ICMP signed of an agreement with the Government of Chile to provide technical assistance in identifying victims of enforced disappearance.
ICMP’s DNA laboratory has been working with the SML since 2009, providing DNA Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiling of reference and post-mortem exhibits, and also offering technical advice on DNA matching. The agreement with the SML has been successively renewed, most recently in June 2023.
As of December 2023, ICMP’s DNA laboratory had profiled 2,591 reference samples, representing 1,098 missing persons; and 439 post-mortem samples. ICMP had a DNA STR profiling success rate of 72 percent for post-mortem samples from Chile. ICMP’s DNA laboratory provided extensive assistance with profile comparison and match reporting, issuing 93 DNA reports relating to Chilean submissions.
Chile acceded to the ICMP Agreement in 2015.
