The UB cedes genetic samples from the DNA Bank of Civil War victims to Generalitat de Catalunya

From left to right, the Minister for Health, Toni Comín; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, and the Rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias. Photo: Generalitat de Catalunya
From left to right, the Minister for Health, Toni Comín; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, and the Rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias. Photo: Generalitat de Catalunya
Academic
(29/05/2017)

The minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva; the minister for Health, Toni Comín, and the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias, signed the agreement in which the University of Barcelona cedes the genetic samples from the DNA Bank of Civil War victims. The ceremony took place in the room Torres Garcia, in Palau de la Generalitat.

From left to right, the Minister for Health, Toni Comín; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, and the Rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias. Photo: Generalitat de Catalunya
From left to right, the Minister for Health, Toni Comín; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, and the Rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias. Photo: Generalitat de Catalunya
Academic
29/05/2017

The minister for Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva; the minister for Health, Toni Comín, and the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias, signed the agreement in which the University of Barcelona cedes the genetic samples from the DNA Bank of Civil War victims. The ceremony took place in the room Torres Garcia, in Palau de la Generalitat.

The 180 genetic samples of the victims of the Civil War, collected by the UB, have been put in the database created by the Government of Generalitat with the Genetic Identification Programme of persons gone missing during Spanish Civil War and Francoism. This program is launched and coordinated by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency with the collaboration of the departments of Health and Justice.

During the signing ceremony, the rector of the UB, Joan Elias, highlighted the sensitivity of the Government regarding the issue and the “honor it means for the University of Barcelona to take part in such an important task for the recovery of historical memory”. The ministers and the rector thanked the work done by the entities that worked on the DNA Bank and celebrated that eventually, Catalonia has a public program dedicated to the search of missing people during the Civil War and the Franco regime.

The list of registered missing people has 5.5000 names. Tests are regularly carried out in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona. The first ones in the Genetic Identification Programme and Francoismwere done in November 2016 and so far 700 family members of these missing people have taken these tests. Apart from these 700 genetic samples, now there are 180 more given by the UB. With this cession, the UB DNA Bank disappears and the Genetic Identification Programme the great public basis, open to everyone.