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.