“This policy brief considers the past, present and future of forensic exhumations in
Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. Past exhumations conducted by
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) at the request of the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were short-lived and controversial, from the perspective
of both the international community and the communities that hosted the investigations. There is, however, widespread support among survivors for renewed efforts to identify and repatriate the anonymous victims
of the 1994 genocide, both to reduce the psychological and spiritual distress the survivors experience and to provide definitive evidence of the genocide for future generations. In this brief, the term “repatriation” is used to refer to the process of returning human remains to their surviving relatives for appropriate reburial.”
