In November 2025 MaGPIE submitted a written call for evidence to the Standing Group on Atrocity Crimes in relation to the development of recommendations for a comprehensive and cohesive UK framework for addressing atrocity-related issues. MaGPIE’s submission outlined how digital mapping of mass graves can provide the critical evidence needed to investigate international atrocity crimes
Read our response here.
📅 9 – 10 September 2025
📍 Bournemouth University
In 2020, based on the same principle of convening expert roundtables, we produced the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation. To date, it has been translated into 14 languages, is in operation in mass grave contexts around the world and listed as a legal document by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The focus of the Bournemouth Protocol is on mass graves that arise during conflict or gross human rights violations, and while it contains elements that may be of use for engagement with mass graves arising in the course of migration, it does not reflect the full and specific exigencies of the migration context.
To begin to decipher what changes may need to be made to Bournemouth Protocol experts were invited over two days to contribute to the following themes:
Sousar’s blog, presented here in its full, initial form, details the central themes of these discussions: specifically, how to support families, communities, and grassroots organisations on the ground as they search for the disappeared.
The Institute of Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo’s (ICCW) primary goal is to build and preserve collective memory of the crimes committed during the Kosovo war (1998-1999) through comprehensive and systematic research. In 2026 the institution published a volume titled The Scale, Adjudication, and Documentation of Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo exploring a range of issues that include the destruction of cultural heritage, gender-based violence, mass graves analysis and methodological approaches to investigating war crimes, the volume offers new contributions to a broader discussion on transitional justice, collective memory and sustainable peace.
MaGPIE has contributed a chapter to this volume, written by Diego Nunez, Melanie Klinkner, and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, analysing the information collected and assembled for Kosovo in the context of MaGPIE. The data collated over the last two years offers a unique standing point to compare the Kosovar experience with a wider set of cases. The effort and resources invested by the international community and in-country initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo to find and identify the victims of the 1990s Balkan wars was unprecedented. Yet, the data shows that progress in the investigations surrounding mass graves seems to vary widely between these countries. In Kosovo, more than 25 years after the war, the publicly available evidence suggests that only a relatively small portion of such graves has been fully excavated and investigated. Moreover, our data reveals patterns in the way mass graves have been created and subsequently engaged with, highlighting areas where renewed efforts for further information would be beneficial and would chime with the political determination by Kosovo and Serbia, as espoused in a joint 2023 Declaration, to address unresolved missing persons cases linked to the conflict.
MaGPIE PI, Melanie, presented on a panel in the Palace of Westminster in a session entitled “From Mass Graves to Courtroom – Preserving and Using Evidence from Mass Graves” organised by the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Law, Justice and Accountability.
The session, chaired by MP Brendan O’Hara and organised by Dr Ewelina U. Ochab from the International Bar Association, brought together leading experts on international law, international cooperation and international organisations to discuss how evidence from mass graves can be preserved, protected, and potentially used in legal proceedings addressing atrocity crimes.
Other speakers included, Rt Hon Alistair Burt in his role as Commissioner for the International Commission on Missing Persons, Rupert Skilbeck, Director of REDRESS, and Dr Chantal Joubert from the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security with her intricate experience on progressing the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention.
Melanie presented MaGPIE’s research on open-source mass grave mapping and outlined how the Bournemouth Protocol provides a legally robust framework for the protection and investigation of mass graves. Her contribution emphasised the need for rigorous, rights-based approaches to evidence preservation, particularly in fragile post-conflict contexts.
Prior to the Parliamentary session, MaGPIE continued its engagement efforts with policymakers. Team member Emily met with aides to MP Uma Kumaran, as part of an ongoing dialogue regarding safe mass grave excavation practices in Sri Lanka. In a recent letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, MP Kumaran requested that the Bournemouth Protocol be translated into Tamil and Sinhalese, a move that would make its guidance more accessible to local practitioners and communities involved in post-conflict recovery and accountability efforts.
MaGPIE has recently published, in the International Review of the Red Cross, a collaborative paper entitled ‘Mass grave mapping and the protection of the dead’. It outlines some of the work undertaken by MaGPIE so far, and answers the question, as far as possible, as to whether mass grave mapping can act as a form of protection.
The following is an excerpt from the abstract, to read the full article please follow the link in the image below:
The need to respect and (physically) protect the dead is well established under international and national laws and extends to human remains found in mass graves. Oncemass graves are discovered, and prior to any investigation, the dead in mass graves should be secured to an extent through the protection of the site itself. Should investigations follow (due to human rights abuses or breaches of international humanitarian or international criminal law), then the dead, if excavated, are in the custody and protection of the investigating authorities. Following successful identification of human remains, their return to the next of kin may be possible, or appropriate reburial may ensue.
MaGPIE team members Professor Melanie Klinkner and Dr Ellie Smith have recently published the outputs from MaGMap, an open-access resource for rights-informed mass grave mapping.
The aim of this project was to examine where, when and under what circumstances mapping of mass graves should be avoided or kept secret so that protection is not jeopardised. Their outputs, three separate decision-making tools and a guide to their use – Rights Informed Mass Grave Mapping – a guide to the use of mapping tools – fill this gap.
The guide offers three tools that will enable rights-informed mass grave mapping:
During April 2024, Professor Melanie, Dr. Ellie and Diego visited Guatemala, a MaGPIE case study country. To find out more about what they learnt, please read: MaGPIE Guatemala Visit
At the end of January 2024, Professor Melanie Klinkner and Dr Ellie Smith travelled to Cambodia to hear more about the mass grave mapping project conducted by the Documentation of Cambodia (DC-CAM), including any challenges they faced with data collection and verification. They also met with UN representatives at the ECCC, where they discussed, amongst other things, the use of mapping materials in legal proceedings and their own open source court documentation project.
Effective rules and procedures for the protection, maintenance and investigation of mass graves are vital. The Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection defines standards on this crucial issue by collating and clarifying international norms to progress policy and practice.
This book, edited by Melanie Klinkner and Ellie Smith, tactfully examines this sensitive topic, demonstrating how mass grave investigations can be highly complex, context-specific, lengthy and expensive processes, requiring significant planning, coordination, expertise and resources. The book analyses the various processes involved in mass grave investigation from a number of disciplinary perspectives and a variety of geographical, cultural and political contexts, including Bosnia, Guatemala, Libya, Nepal and Rwanda. Chapters feature expert contributions from voices in the fields of forensic sciences, advocacy and the judiciary, along with world-leading international legal expertise on mass graves, their protection and investigation.
Michael G. Karnavas Review:
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In just about every war and conflict, there are mass graves.
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With mass grave investigations being complex and content-specific, and with no uniform approach, identifying standards and modalities based on lessons learned in unearthing mass graves were needed. As M. Cherif Bassiouni observed in a scholarly journal in 2001, “[i]t is beyond logical explanation to find that the UN has […] no protocols for mass grave exhumation or reconstruction of events.” Out of this vacuum nearly two decades later, and after a “two-year long collaborative research project involving multiple experts”, the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation was born. MASS GRAVES, TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Investigation of Mass Graves grew out of this project. Research Fellow Ellie Smith and Professor Melanie Klinkner at Bournemouth University have assembled an all-star cast, offering perspectives and analysis on the multi-disciplinary processes involved in mass grave investigations in places such as Bosnia, Guatemala, Libya, Nepal, and Rwanda. This book punches well above its weight.
This short, non-verbal, animated film, “Resolution” gives voice to the experiences of family members of the missing, and humanises the statistical, judicial and forensic facets of mass grave recovery.