Identity, privacy and human rights: public policies and DNA tests in cases of appropriated persons during the last Argentine dictatorship

Abstract

This article analyzes some policies developed to defend the right to identity in cases where the people involved do not wish to voluntarily deliver DNA samples. For this, the paper reconstructs the story of Evelin Bauer Pegoraro, a young woman appropriated in the last Argentine civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983). From the analysis of this case and the problems faced by the civil association Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo to identify the appropriate persons in cases in which the identification requires the compulsive collection of DNA samples, we inquire about the elaboration of strategies and concrete demands to the State and the international community. The characteristics of Evelin’s history expose the complexity of the restitution processes, allowing us to investigate the alleged opposition of the right to identity and the right to privacy. In these terms, this article seeks to shed light on how the problems of a unique restitution process led to reformulate and demand new policies to guarantee the right to identity in Argentina.