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Peru’s Congress Approves National DNA Database to Bolster Criminal Investigations

Next comes rulemaking to deploy a police-run system with mandated privacy safeguards.

Overview

  • Peru’s Congress, which voted Thursday, passed the BNDPG 81–21 with two abstentions and then waived a second vote 81–22 with one abstention.
  • The database will hold only legally obtained, non-coding DNA profiles to match crime-scene samples, identify remains, and aid searches for the missing while protecting dignity and avoiding discrimination.
  • The National Police forensics directorate will run the system through a management council led by its chief and advised by genetics experts who must issue protocols for custody, security, collection, processing, storage, and access.
  • Records will cover victims, suspects and defendants, prisoners, crime-scene evidence, forensics staff whose work touches evidence, profiles sent by foreign authorities, and relatives of missing people.
  • New Penal Code offenses set five to seven years in prison for falsifying, hiding, substituting, or altering human genetic material, evidence, or profiles in the bank.