Dr Cristián Orrego: "1984" in Latin America: The Emergence of Forensic Anthropology Teams and DNA Identification of the Disappeared

Cristián Orrego is Director of Forensic Projects at the Human Rights Center, School of Law, University of California at Berkeley. He has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is a forensic geneticist. Previously, he was Assistant Laboratory Director and Criminalist Supervisor at the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Forensic Services. He is a founding member of the volunteer organisation, “Alliance of Forensic Scientists for Human Rights and Humanitarian Investigations”, which has worked on the El Salvador DNA Reunification Project. He was appointed Science Advisor to the Chilean Presidential Commission on Policies for Human Rights in May 2006, and subsequently, a member of an International Commission of Experts for the Legal Medical Service, Ministry of Justice, Chile, from May 2007 to February 2010. His involvement in enhancing the scientific capacity of NGOs involved in human rights dates back to 1984 when he was a member of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is currently a Visiting Professional with the Scientific Response Unit in the OTP.