Brazilian spotlight on INTERPOL's I-Familia: Policy, practice, and international missing persons identification

The disappearance of individuals is a global humanitarian and public security issue that requires coordinated national and international responses. INTERPOL's I-Familia database is a global DNA database that uses kinship matching to support identification of missing persons (MP) and unidentified human remains (UHR) when a direct DNA profile from the missing person is unavailable. This study presents an implementation-focused case study of Brazil's integration with I-Familia system, examining the legal, institutional, and operational conditions that shape transnational humanitarian DNA data sharing within a major contributor country. Due to its strategic geographic position in South America, extensive land borders, and integration into regional and intercontinental migration flows, Brazil represents a particularly significant setting for the study of transnational migration, human identification, and international forensic cooperation. By November 2025, Brazil had submitted 12,521 UHR DNA profiles and profiles from relatives of 64 MPs. Despite being the largest contributor of UHR profiles, Brazil has not achieved a confirmed identification through I-Familia, highlighting the gap between data volume and operational impact. Key limiting factors include asymmetries in international participation, legal and governance barriers to data sharing, and the imbalance between the number of DNA profiles from UHR and from relatives of MPs. Brazil's experience illustrates both the potential and the limitations of large-scale humanitarian forensic DNA data sharing and situates the country within the broader debate on international forensic DNA governance, interoperability challenges, and ethical frameworks for humanitarian kinship databases.