On International Human Rights Day, a look back at a key Minnesota-born protocol

NINA MOINI: Today is International Human Rights Day, which celebrates the United Nations adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That was on December 10, 1948. Near the top of the Declaration is a statement that, quote, everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

We're going to zero in now on a tool used around the world to gather evidence and hold governments accountable for violating these rights. It's called the Minnesota Protocol, and that's because a group of lawyers created it here in the 1980s. Jennifer Prestholdt is deputy director of the Advocates for Human Rights. And she worked on the updated version of this protocol. She joins me on the line now. Thanks so much for making time for us, Jennifer.

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Thanks so much. Happy to be here. Happy Human Rights Day.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. A happy day indeed. Tell me a little bit about the Minnesota Protocol. If you had to summarize it, what exactly is it?

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: So the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Deaths is a key resource that was adopted by the United Nations. And it provides international guidance on a government's obligation to prevent and to investigate potentially unlawful deaths. So it sets out an international legal framework.

And then it provides really practical guidelines on how to do death investigations, so crime-scene investigations, how to do interviews in witness protection, recovery of human remains, identification of dead bodies, collecting evidence, and then really detailed protocols for how to do autopsies and analysis of skeletal remains.

NINA MOINI: And why was it important to have a standard method for these investigations and the things you're talking about?

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Well, this is where we get into a little bit of Minnesota history, actually. If we go back to the '80s, the organization I work for, The Advocates for Human Rights, was at that time called the Minnesota International Lawyers Human Rights Committee, started in 1983. And at that time, lawyers in our community were really concerned about a lack of accountability for suspected unlawful deaths, like the Aquino political assassination, lots of enforced disappearances happening around the world.

And in that situation, you need to have an effective investigation to establish responsibility. But there were no international standards requiring governments to carry out effective investigations. So that gap in the international law and the practice meant that governments literally, literally were getting away with murder.

So to address that, one of the first projects of the advocates was to come up with the international standards regarding death investigations and then these practical guidelines. So they brought together legal and forensic expertise. We had a lot of that in our community here, Professor David Weissbrodt from the Law School, Sam Heins, Barb Frey, Tom Johnson, Lindsey Thomas and Garry Peterson from the Hennepin County Coroner's office.

They did a lot of research and a lot of drafting. At the end was two documents. One was the UN Principles on Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, which was adopted by the UN in 1989. That's the international law. And then the second was the UN Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, which was adopted by the UN in 1991. That was the more practical side.

And my understanding is that the autopsy protocols really are very much based on the Hennepin County Coroner's office protocols. And those are being used all around the world.

NINA MOINI: That's fascinating. And so you were actually on a workgroup that updated the protocols in 2015. Can you explain a little bit about why it needed to be updated and what some of the most significant changes were?

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Yeah. Well, a lot has changed in the world since the 1980s. We know a lot more about crime-scene investigation. I think that's-- you know, even I know a lot more just from watching CSI. That's actually the most watched TV drama series in the world, believe it or not. But forensic science has also advanced. And so DNA analysis and other technologies have made it much easier to identify.

But the law has also advanced. So now, or at least in 2015, when we were working with the UN to update the Minnesota Protocol, the internationally accepted principles about what constitutes a duty to investigate were much more clear than they were back in the '80s. Also, the rights of family members to know what's going on with the investigation and rights to reparation and other remedies.

And another area where the law advanced was that society as a whole has the right to know the truth. And that's in order to prevent future human rights abuses. So there are a lot of good reasons to do that update. I served on the legal working group, but there was also a forensics working group. And the end result was the 2016 update.

And one thing that's kind of interesting is the original name Minnesota Protocol was not included back in the '89 and--

NINA MOINI: Oh!

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: --'91 documents. Yeah, but in practice it was called the Minnesota Protocol because everybody knew that it was developed here in Minnesota. So it was very important to the UN when we did the revision, which was published in 2016, that it be called the Minnesota Protocol.

NINA MOINI: Speaking of the UN, can you talk a little bit about what is the outcome of using the Minnesota Protocol? I mean, sometimes we're talking about states or countries investigating their own situation, which can be a breeding ground for people to be dishonest. So it's important to have the standard that you establish.

But does it come with consequences? Can-- like, what can be imposed as a result of using this uniform investigative method?

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Well, it's been used in really a myriad of investigative contexts around the world. We did a little research when we were doing the update to see how it's been used. And so you're exactly right that it is used by governments themselves. And I've found, actually, that governments are very open to it. Most governments want to do a good job. And so having the very practical guidelines is very exciting for them.

But it's also been used by international human-- international bodies to do investigations. I can tell you a little bit about my own personal experience.

NINA MOINI: Sure!

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: We were doing some work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru. And they, as part of their work, they were doing exhumation of mass graves. And in that context, they were very proud. They pulled out the Minnesota Protocol and said, we're following the international standards. We're doing this right. So that was kind of cool to be able to say that my organization was the originator of that.

Another way that it's used is actually by family members and by the organizations that are working with them. And often in that situation, it's to push the police or push the government to do an investigation. But it also provides a really helpful framework for them to know what questions to ask, so have you done-- have you done an autopsy, those kind of questions.

I've also heard that-- I'll just finish one other thing. I've also heard from colleagues that have done work in places like Tunisia and Nigeria, where the government forensic experts actually have photocopied the model autopsy protocol and take them in their back pocket out to the field and then use them, like physically draw on them and then use them in their work. So it's a really useful and very practical tool that's been used in a lot, a lot of different situations.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, I was just going to ask if there's places that are-- it's being used today currently.

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Yeah, I mean it's the UN-- it's a key UN text. It's been translated into all six official languages. And then other countries have translated it as well. So it's being used in all of the UN-mandated investigations, so places like Ukraine, Sudan, Nicaragua, Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also uses the Minnesota Protocol as part of their work. And one relatively recent example is from Guatemala, where they were working with forensic experts in Guatemala to identify individuals that had been disappeared. And they were able to identify and return 48 remains to their families for burial.

NINA MOINI: In that instance, were some of the findings sort of overturned? Or are you ever concerned that countries or rulers can say, well, I guess the UN thinks we did something wrong, but oh, well, we're just going to ignore that?

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Yeah, I mean, that's always an issue. And I think there's a really strong role for civil society in that situation to use this. A colleague that I've worked with in Cambodia and Thailand said that it's actually their most effective tool with telling the government that they have to conduct an effective investigation and not just kind of sweep things-- if there's a suspicious death, they have to investigate it.

NINA MOINI: OK, so a standard all around. Well, Jennifer, I really appreciate you coming on and telling us all about this. I learned so much, and wishing you well with all of your work in the coming year as well.

JENNIFER PRESTHOLDT: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Jennifer Prestholdt, Deputy Director of the Advocates for Human Rights, based in Minneapolis.