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1.4.5 Unofficial and Official Investigations The relationship between the audience of this Handbook and official investigators is one to be determined by official investigators themselves. This determination will depend on their mandates and procedural rules, and not the quality of the information collected by unofficial investigators. The quality of this information may however enhance cooperation when official investigators’ mandates and procedures allow for interaction with unofficial investigators. As, for example, the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict provides, a “multi-sectoral approach [to justice] that includes collaboration between health professionals, lawyers, police and the judiciary” is essential to seeking justice for victims. 3 Similarly, this Handbook aims to contribute to the improvement of coordination and consistency of approach between all those involved, officially and unofficially. 1.4.6 Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations In this Handbook the term civil society organization (CSO) is often preferred to the term non-governmental organization (NGO), 4 as the former is comprehensive of the latter, and also includes formations that have not constituted themselves through an official legal status. The words are not used interchangeably, however, and NGO is used exclusively when addressing actors with NGO status. 1.5 PILPG Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations materials In addition to the present Handbook, PILPG’s resources for the documentation of serious human rights violations encompass a number of http://folkebernadotteacademy.se/Documents/Kunskapsomr%C3%A5den/Rule%20of%20Law/A%20Hand book%20on%20Assisting%20International%20Criminal%20Investigations.pdf. 3 International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict (United Kingdom: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, June 2014), available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/319054/PSVI_protocol_web .pdf 4 The terms CSO and NGO are defined by UNDP, Possibilities for South-South Cooperation: NGOS, AND SCOS: A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY, ANNEX I, available online http://www.cn.undp.org/content/dam/china/docs/Publications/UNDP-CH03%20Annexes.pdf. 18

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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

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Data/Information Strategy
Preservation and Archiving
Verification

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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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