I-Familia-Global database to identify missing persons
GS PAPER III: Security challenges and their management in border areas - linkages of organized crime with terrorism.
Context: The Interpol has launched a new global database named “I-Familia” to identify missing persons through family DNA and help the police solve cold cases in member countries.
- I-Familia can identify missing persons through family DNA and help the police solve cold cases in member countries.
- It applies cutting-edge scientific research and used the DNA of relatives to identify missing persons or unidentified human remains around the world.
- DNA kinship matching is used mostly in cases where a direct sample of the missing person is not available.
- I-Familia is the first global database to automatically control for such differences without requiring knowledge of the missing person’s genetic ancestry and provide standardised guidelines on what constitutes a match.
- More than 12,000 active Yellow Notices, which are international police alerts for missing persons, had been issued by the Interpol by late 2020.
- I-Familia has three components:
- a dedicated global database to host the DNA profiles provided by relatives, held separately from any criminal data;
- DNA matching software called Bonaparte, developed by Dutch company Smart Research; and
- interpretation guidelines developed by Interpol.
- Family members must give their consent for their data to be used for international searching. There is no nominal data attached to the profile, which is submitted in the form of an alphanumerical code.
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