2009 Programs And Events
U.S. Forensic Scientist Leads Seminars on Analysis of Evidence (05/03/2009)
The Chief Medical Examiner from Houston, Texas, came to Uzbekistan for a week of training forensic scientists, investigators, prosecutors and judges in aspects of forensic medicine ranging from identification of poisons in a body to tracing DNA evidence to a suspect.
In a series of conferences between April 27 and May 3 in Tashkent and Bukhara, Dr. Luis Sanchez spoke on topics with such titles as “Drug Deaths and Gunshot Wounds,” “Motor Vehicle Accidents, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and Child Abuse” and “Cause and Manner of Death Certification.”
Sanchez oversees an office whose duties include examining bodies to determine cause of death, identification of substances, and analysis of DNA and other physical evidence. Police and prosecutors use the analyses and interpretations from his office to build criminal cases.
The forensic sciences are the backbone of a criminal justice system, Sanchez said, because they provide the hard facts of a case.
“Science is the cornerstone of our justice system,” he said, adding that it is therefore essential to have procedures in place to ensure that the results are accurate. “The methodologies we use in our laboratories have to stand up in court.”
For that reason, much of his discussion in the Uzbekistan sessions was about developing and enforcing standards, from collecting evidence at crime scenes through proper handling and analysis in the laboratory.
For several years, the U.S. Government has been working with Uzbekistan in the area of forensic sciences. During opening remarks at the conference April 28 in Tashkent, U.S. Ambassador Richard Norland noted that the U.S. Government had invested nearly $900,000 to upgrade the Main Forensic Laboratory under the Ministry of Health, conduct training with visiting experts such as Sanchez, and support participation in professional development conferences.
“A sound forensic system helps justice to be served,” Norland said. “The U.S. Embassy is proud of our long record of cooperation with Uzbekistan on further developing the role of forensic sciences.”
He noted that the Ministry of Health’s forensic laboratory was moving toward certification from the International Standards Organization, and said he was confident they would achieve that.
Sanchez has been conducting training on forensic sciences since 1996 in Latin America, Africa and Central Asia. The judges, lawyers and investigators in each region have been very receptive to expanding the role of forensic science as a key to strengthening their justice systems, he said.