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TABLE OF CONTENTS DISCLAIMER ................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... 5 GLOSSARY....................................................................................................... 8 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 11 1.1 Statement of Purpose ..................................................................... 11 1.2 A Societal Need ............................................................................... 11 1.3 Audience .......................................................................................... 14 1.4 Terminology .................................................................................... 15 1.4.1 Investigation and Documentation ........................................... 15 1.4.2 First-respondents v. Investigators .......................................... 16 1.4.3 1.4.4 Unofficial v. Untrained ........................................................... 17 Information v. Evidence .......................................................... 17 1.4.5 Unofficial and Official Investigations .................................... 18 1.4.6 Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations.......................................................................... 18 1.5 PILPG Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations materials .......................................................................................... 18 2. ETHICAL PRINCIPLES FOR CIVIL SOCIETY DOCUMENTATION ........... 21 2.1 General Principles for Documenting Information ...................... 21 2.1.1 Do No Harm............................................................................ 21 2.1.2 Informed Consent.................................................................... 23 2.1.3 Confidentiality ........................................................................ 28 2.1.4 Referring Victims/Witnesses to Professional Assistance........ 29 2.1.5 Recognizing and Preventing the Risk of Re-Traumatization.. 32 2.1.6 Impartiality ............................................................................. 35 2.1.7 2.1.8 Managing Expectations .......................................................... 36 Preserving the Chain of Custody of Information ................... 36 5

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PILPG Handbook on Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations Sept 2016

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Documentation Purpose

Perpetrator-centred documentation

Topic(s)

Data/Information Strategy
Preservation and Archiving
Verification

Type

Guide

Description: Increasingly, civil society actors engage in documentation and investigation processes, seeking to collect evidence against those responsible for serious human rights violations. The purpose of this Handbook is to provide guidelines and best practices for the collection and management of information on serious human rights situations for those that are not professionally trained in such documentation practices. While the Handbook strongly emphasizes the need to refrain from investigating human rights abuses and to refer to professionals, practice shows that this is not always possible. Only under such circumstances and as a last resort may civil society actors consider engaging in certain documentation practices and not in others, always seeking to include professionals when and where possible. They may however only do so by adhering to the ethical principles and documentation guidelines that are provided in this Handbook. These enable unofficial investigators to do no harm, identify security risks, preserve crime scenes, prevent the loss of evidence, and manage the information in manner that preserves confidentiality, security and probative value, with an eye to possible use in later redress processes and without jeopardizing the future work of professionally trained and officially appointed investigators.

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PILPG_Handbook_on_Civil_Society_Documentation_of_Serious_Human_Rights_Violations_Sept_2016_tcm289-785328.pdf
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PILPG Handbook on Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations Sept 2016

Primary Documents

Verification Handbook

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