Forensic Science in a Human Rights Framework

Forensic services, founded upon good science and best practice, provide an inherent safeguard for human rights. Moreover, practitioners are well placed to uphold fundamental and longstanding rights such as ‘the right to a fair hearing’. Our ability to embrace other emerging rights, however, is less clear. The increasing ambit and remit of forensic science is a cause of increasing social, legal and ethical concerns. Furthermore, there is an inherent tension between the notion of ‘value free scientific method’ and the conflicting dictates of government policies, which seek to recognise and protect greater religious, ethnic and cultural freedoms whilst being increasingly reliant upon forensic science in the detection, prevention and prosecution of criminality.

This paper addresses, from the perspective of a practitioner, the complex relationship between forensic science and society and the implications of new developments upon our role in the criminal justice system within a human rights framework. In particular, this paper argues that forensic practitioners must actively engage with societal concerns. We cannot be simple onlookers in this debate.