decent and allowed by the victim. Use a ruler and color chart to contextualize the injury. Let the victim help. 5. Take pictures again when the injuries are healed, for comparison. 6. Record everything you do, make clear that your actions are for recording purposes only and discuss issues of confidentiality (see Section 2.1.3 on Confidentiality). Unofficial investigators should not document injuries to private parts of the body and should not ask individuals to undress or expose private parts of the body. Unofficial investigators may only record visual information of external physical injury. Unofficial investigators may note the following external physical injuries: • Any obvious injury such as swelling, bruises, cuts, grazes or burns. • Any difficulty in movement of the body such as walking, climbing stairs, sitting or standing up for long periods, bending down, or raising the arms. • Any deformity of the shape or posture of the back or limbs. 109 If allowed, you should record in detail the site, size, shape, color and type of any injury are recorded in detail. If there are numerous injuries, a body diagram might be useful to sketch their placement (see Appendix 2). It is important to describe the appearance of injuries as accurately and precisely as possible. Preferably, unofficial investigators would measure the size of injuries. Alternatively, unofficial investigators can estimate the size of the injury by taking as reference a common object. Save any relevant papers, records or documents as potential evidence and for handwriting analysis.110 Preserving Forensic Information Information related to physical injury should be properly collected, handled, packaged, labeled and placed in safe-keeping to prevent contamination, tampering or loss of information. As noted above, however, 109 Camille Giffard, THE TORTURE REPORTING HANDBOOK, 48 (2000), available at http://www.essex.ac.uk/torturehandbook/handbook%28english%29.pdf. 110 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ("Istanbul Protocol"), para. 103, HR/P/PT/8/Rev.1 (2004), available at http://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/training8rev1en.pdf. 84