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.