From 3 to 5 July 1998, at the Holiday Inn in Durban, South Africa, some 70 medical and legal professionals, human rights activists and others drawn from six African countries and from Europe, participated in a workshop on the application of forensic medicine to the documentation and investigation of human rights violations. This report summarises the discussions which took place over the period of the workshop and includes details of the program, a list of participants, and a summary of the workshop evaluation.