C. TECHNIQUES FOR DOCUMENTATION I. Developing a documentation protocol Designing a documentation protocol is Determine your objectives necessary to ensure that you achieve your objectives, and that your methodology is appropriately matched to the skills and Gain background knowledge resources of your team. The following advice draws on the methodology suggested in A Practitioner’s Guide to Human Rights Develop your approach and team Monitoring, Documentation, and Advocacy published by Advocates for Human Rights, the Training Manual on Human Rights Develop a case management system Monitoring published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in addition to ABA ROLI’s own experience in documenting human rights documentation, including in the context of the current conflict in Syria. Step 1: Determine your objectives Consider what you hope to accomplish. What are the goals of the project? Is it replicating work that is currently being done or is there added value? What findings might the project yield? What will the final product be?  Identify the issue and the scope of the project Be clear about the issue that needs to be documented and investigated, including the suspected human rights abuses. Confirming that there is a need for documentation is necessary to respect the “do no harm” principle, given that documentation requires respondents to engage in a potentially physically and emotionally risky process. Define the scope of the issue that you will be documenting, given the time, money, and resources available to your organization. Example: Documenting instances of torture In view of reports of torture being committed by government and anti-government forces, a documentation team may wish to document instances of torture among a particular demographic profile (for example, civilians living or formerly living in a particular town or region) to try to establish a pattern of human rights violations.  Identify the relevant human rights standards It is important to have a clear understanding of the human rights standards that are relevant to the issue or issues being documented. The likely kinds of human rights and humanitarian law violations that may have been experienced by populations in Syria are outlined in Section D. However, as the nature of violations change, it will be important for organizations undertaking documentation to refresh and deepen their 8