The team of Dr. Eduardo Tizzano, clinical director of Clinical and Molecular Genetics at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and head of the Genetics group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) will coordinate the collection and analysis of biological samples of the Genetic Identification Program of missing persons during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, announced by the government of the Generalitat. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, the Minister of Health, Antoni Comín, and the Minister of Justice Carles Mundó, this morning presented the program to establish a database with genetic profiles of the relatives of the missing persons, a database of genetic profiles from skeletal remains exhumed, and to establish family relationships and determine personal identifications of the remains.Minister Comín noted that "now it is ensured a right of the living: they can bury their dead from the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship with dignity." "We will put all the means to facilitate this right", said the Minister of Health. Moreover, Comín wanted to make a special recognition to Dr. Eduardo Tizzano and his team in the area of genetics at the University Hospital Vall Hebron, for coordinating the collection and analysis of biological samples of relatives.Minister Romeva stressed that recovery of historical memory is a "duty and a right that has to do with our dignity today, the quality of our democratic system, the density of our living and strength of our identity." According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, "Today, all together we deserve the country we aspire to have," because "only with a clean memory we can look forward with a clean look and serenity needed to face the future as a country."Romeva publicly thanked the Departments of Health and Justice and their willingness to cooperate in this program with the Department of Foreign Affairs. "The agreements that we have signed today are a step forward in Catalonia to solve a basic democratic deficit," said Romeva. In this regard, he also stressed that it is "a pioneer step" in the context of the territories that suffered Civil War and that Catalonia progress "through the path of apology and the visibility of the memory of Civil War victims".For his part, the Minister Mundó said that "it is a Government's debt to close a dark page in history to regain memory and return to their families the bodies of their relatives." "The Justice Department is fully committed to recover the dignity of the families victims of the Civil War," he added. How the program worksAccess to the program will be made through the registration of Missing Persons Census of the Department of Foreign Affairs and anyone can participate, regardless of their nationality, related to missing persons during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The participants do not incur any cost to participate in the program, since the extraction and processing of the biological sample is free for applicants.The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Directorate General of Institutional Relations and the Parliament (DGRRII) progressively inform all people registered in the census about the existence of this project and will provide information and contact of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (HUVH) staff, responsible for scheduling visits to all centres affiliated to the program and part of the Department of Health, who organized the whole process of personal citations for the extraction of biological samples. Therefore, HUVH will collect, preserve and guard, and process biological samples.Meanwhile, the DGRRII performed genetic analysis of human skeletal remains deposited in the Camposines Memorial (La Faterella) and all located as a result of the exhumation work around the Catalan territory. The Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Catalonia (IMLCFC) in accordance with the judicial authorities will also carry out anthropological analysis of human remains. The results and data will be introduced on a specific database for processing and preservation.Specific software will be used for crossing and contrast with genetic data obtained from the relatives of the missing persons. The genetic laboratory of the HUVH will issue a detailed report on the likelihood of kinship in each case, given the common informative markers in the samples crossed, and will deliver it to the DGRRII for registration and to contact in case of crossing interested relatives to inform them. http://exteriors.gencat.cat/ca/detalls/noticia/El-Govern-posa-en-funcionament-el-Programa-dIdentificacio-Genetica-de-desapareguts-durant-la-Guerra-Civil-i-la-dictadura-franquista Read the press release from the government on this link