Letter from the Guest Editor

The forensic pathologist Professor Keith Mant (1919-2000) was probably the first physician who applied forensic medicine to the investigation of genocide when he led the British army's investigation of Nazi atrocities. Professor Mant's initial work gave rise to an increased awareness of the role of forensic pathology in the quest to search for the truth after armed conflict, war, and other large-scale fatality events. The emergence of nongovernment organizations such as the Physicians for Human Rights and the creation of the United Nation's international criminal tribunals (Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia) saw the first institutionalized approaches to forensic death investigation in the international domain. In addition, the emergence of forensic anthropology, largely spearheaded internationally by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense) has greatly contributed to humanitarian action, in the forensic context, throughout the world. The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will prove to be a key step in the development of global forensic science. As the ICC finds innovative ways to narrow the impunity gap for crimes against humanity, their application of forensic science to international criminal issues will grow and develop our discipline. Similarly, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has led the way to develop humanitarian forensic science. The efforts of the ICRC have provided real benefit to families who have lost loved ones at the time of internal armed conflict or natural disaster. The ICRC is also transforming forensic science and forensic pathology across the world