Gulan 15th January 2007: Human rights of dead people

http://www.gulan-media.com/h618/g49.pdf

Do dead people have human rights?

I made this question summer 2006 to Dr Helena Ranta. She is forensic odontologist and Team Leader of the Finnish Forensic Expert Team.
She answered:
"According the international law they don't have. Human rights end at the moment of death. But I think dead people have three basic rights: a grave, their name in it and funeral ceremonies according their religion or belief. This is also reflected in the Additional Protocoll of Geneva Conventions."
Dr Ranta says that it is the right of the families to know the cause of death of their beloved ones. Without this information it is very difficult for them to continue their own lives.
The families also have the right to bury their deceased.
"There are lots of problems in accomplishing these basic rights in the battle fields all around the world. Despite situations are different the circumstances are always the same: there is a country which is breaking down and it turning against its own citizens," Ranta said.

Finnish Dr. Helena Ranta is forensic odontologist. She is coordinator at the department of Forensic Medicine Helsinki University for Disaster Victim Identification and International Missions.
She has been leading the forensic investigations of deceased found in mass graves since 1996 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Cameroon, Peru and Iraq.
March 2003 Mrs. Ranta was Chamber Witness in Haag International Tribunal at the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) at the court case of Slobodan Milosevic. September 2005 she made an observation mission to Grozny, Chechnya. She was invited there by the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation.
Mrs Ranta was advisor of the Truth and Conciliation Commission in Peru. At the moment she coordinates Master of Science education in forensic sciences and human rights at the Catholic University of Lima in Peru, South-America.

Last summer I asked her what she thinks about the Turkish law proposal that bodies of Kurdish guerrillas would not be given to their families. At that time the Parliament of Turkey was still discussing the changes to Anti-Terror Law 3713. Now these changes of the law are valid.
"International agreements are unambiguous in this issue. Geneva Conventions from 1949 and the Additional Protocoll from 1977 indicate that the manner and course of dead should be clarified. It is the first thing to do. It is the right of the families to get this information," she answered.

Is there some difference whether the deceased is a civil or a soldier?
"We, the Finnish Forensic Team, treat every death as a death. In clarifying the cause of death there is no difference between civilians and soldiers. But WHO (World Health Organisation) categories for death classification and manner of death are different for civilians and soldiers.
The Finnish Forensic Team surveys the causes of death. Then other organisations and courts use this information.
It is not our work to judge. For me the most important thing is to find the truth. In an armed conflict every party lies. The examinations conducted by our team has shown claims made by every party to be false.
An internal conflict is not a war according the international law," she said at the end of the interview.