Parliament adopted the Law “On State Registration of Human Genomic Information”
Today, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted an important law for the law enforcement system and the sphere of expert and forensic activity - “On State Registration of Human Genomic Information” (register. №4265).
The law regulates the processes of creation and functioning of the accounting of human genomic information, improves the work of law enforcement agencies to investigate crimes and identify the persons who committed them, allows to improve the work on the search for missing persons and the identification of unidentified persons.
Why is this law important right now?
Today, specialists of the Expert Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs carry out molecular genetic studies related to war crimes of the military of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine.
“In the four months of the war, more than 6,000 examinations have already been assigned to identify a person, of which about 40 percent have already been completed. That is why it is now extremely important to create a tool for the accumulation and systematization of this information, to give it legal status for use as an evidence base in the process of proving the crimes of racists against Ukraine,” said Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Bondarenko.
On his Facebook page, he said that the world's experience in keeping such records indicates the feasibility of creating a single DNA database. According to this principle, DNA databases are maintained in the USA, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, in which one holder and administrator of the DNA database are identified.
“In all the countries of the world where state registration of DNA is carried out, there is only one single state DNA database in which the anonymized genomic information of all categories defined in the law is accumulated. That is why the adopted law provides for the creation of a state DNA database, which must be unified to be effective. Access to it for verification purposes can be provided to a circle of law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies in the prescribed manner,” Ihor Bondarenko explained.
The purpose of the introduction of a DNA database is the identification of persons who committed criminal offenses and unidentified bodies (remains). To date, genomic information obtained only during forensic molecular genetic examinations is entered into the DNA database. About 95 percent of molecular genetic examinations in our country are carried out by the institutions of the Expert Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The deputy minister said that in total, the database now contains about 45,000 DNA profiles, more than half of which are from traces recovered from crime scenes, and only one-fourth of the DNA profiles in the database are samples of suspected persons.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is convinced that this law will allow forensic experts to get an effective tool to improve the work on the identification of persons, significantly increase the efficiency of crime detection and coordinate the efforts of law enforcement agencies in the field of combating crime.”
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
