French Speaking Working Group

The French Speaking Working Group (FSWG) of the ISFG consists of more than 20 laboratories from Belgium, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Morocco, Switzerland and Quebec (Canada). The group meets once a year to present and discuss the results of the collaborative exercise, to provide continuous education to the members and to share information on interesting cases and issues of concern.

Objectives of the FSWG include:

• to continue the collaborative exercises,
• to consider the problems related to the future accreditation of the laboratories (ISO 17025),
• to exchange information about casework experience,
• make recommendations for the French-speaking forensic community.

Registration of members at ISFG.ORG

To register for FSWG of the ISFG, please contact the secretary of the group, Lydie Samie (contact information below).

Future planned meetings:

2025: The next meeting will take place in Cergy-Pontoise (planned May 19-23) and will be organized by the the Forensic Science Laboratory in the French Gendarmerie (IRCGN). The results of 2025 proficiency testing organized by Analysis Expertise (Epinal) and UGF (Unité de génétique forensique de Lausanne) will be presented at the meeting. Pr Christophe Champod and Pr Franco Taroni, from the School of criminal justice, University of Lausanne, are invited to provide a workshop on evaluation of DNA results considering activities at Court.

Past Meetings:

At first, FSWG was meeting to present the proficiency test results only half a day yearly. In 2005, the group extended the meeting to 2-3 days sessions, for proficiency test results as well as for scientific presentations. This group dispense now an active scientific discussion platform to the French community. Here is a list of the meetings since 2005:
13th meeting: Montréal (Québec, Canada), June 2005
14th meeting: Strasbourg (France), May 2006
15th meeting: Nantes (France), May 2007
16th meeting: Montréal (Québec, Canada), June 26-27, 2008
17th meeting: Liège (Belgium), May 13-14, 2009
18th meeting: Bordeaux (France), May 20-21, 2010
19th meeting: Marseille (France), May 25-26, 2011
20th meeting: Montréal (Québec, Canada), June 27-29, 2012
21st meeting: Namur (Belgium), May 29-31, 2013
22nd meeting: Skhirat (Morocco), May 12-15, 2014 23^rd meeting: Lausanne (Switzerland), May 19-22, 2015 24^th meeting: Predore (Italy), May 31- June 3, 2016 25^th meeting: Pontoise (Paris, France), May 30 - June 2, 2017 Here, you find the recommendations of the FSWG for the French forensic biology community. 26^th meeting: Chania (Crete, Greece), June 27-29, 2018 A half day workshop on LR (Likelihood Ratio) and interpretation given by Jennifer Comte and Dr. Vincent Castella, UGF Lausanne. 27^th meeting: Brussels (Belgium), June 4-7, 2019 A 4-day meeting with a half-day workshop on Baysien networks by Prof. Christophe Champod and Franco Taroni. 2020: The 2020 scientific meeting of the FSWG, programmed to be held in Montréal (Québec, Canada), has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 29^th meeting: Luxembourg - virtual meeting, May 17-20, 2021 30^th meeting: Luxembourg - On site meeting hosted by Dr Elisabet Petkovsky, Chief department of forensic biology, LNS (Laboratoire National de Santé du Luxembourg), May 31th to June 3rd, 2022. Sandrine Durieux, from the SNPS Marseille, won the scientific award for her work "Filiation/kinship, haplotype Y, probabilistic evaluation". 31^st meeging: Montréal - On site meeting hosted by Diane Seguin, Chief department of forensic biology/DNA, LSJML (Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires) of Montréal, June 26th to June 30th, 2023. There was a lot of discussion about how the different laboratories work. Isabelle Bachand, from the LSJML, won the scientific award for her work "Genetic genealogy: the approach of the LSJML". 32^nd meeging: Marseille (France), May 14-17, 2024, On site meeting hosted by the Forensic Science Laboratory in the French Police (LPS) of Marseille (France). The best presentation was awarded to Alain STEVANOVITCH from the LPS in Marseille, on the identification of missing soldiers using a collaborative approach.

Executive Board

President

Secretary

Treasurer