Stephen A_Fonseca

Stephen Antonio Fonseca Manager – African Centre of Expertise on Missing Persons and Forensic Systems International Committee of the Red Cross.

My career in death investigation started in 1998 as a Coroner in the British Columbia Coroners Service.

For 8 years I investigated routine sudden and unexpected death enquiries and presided over inquests.

In 2006, I developed the Identification and Disaster Response Unit.

The primary responsibility was to promote a multi-disciplinary systematic approach to the resolution of missing persons cases through the identification human remains after mass fatality events, in complex investigations, and cold cases.

I joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2013 as a forensic coordinator, posted in Lebanon until early 2015.

I worked primarily on the Missing and Dead from the Lebanese Civil War.

From 2015 to June 2022 I worked in Africa, primarily as the Regional Forensic Manager, where the focus was to empower authorities by enhancing justice and medicolegal systems and systematizing medicolegal processes.

I provided oversight for strategic planning and operational support to ICRC forensic specialists who manage humanitarian forensic programs and activities across the African continent.

In June 2022, I transitioned to the role of Manager of the ICRC’s newly created African Centre of Expertise on Missing Persons and Forensic Systems.

I remain a member of the ICRC’s Forensic Unit Global Management Team.