Human rights violations Documenting guide by Alkawakibi

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Alkawakibi Human Rights Organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Gifting ..... we dedicate this humble work for all activists who are working in the areas of human rights round the world ..... Chairman of the board

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Alkawakibi in Brief Who we are? Alkawakibi Organization is a civic non-governmental human rights, registered in sweden No\802493-1223\ organization concerned with the development of human rights. With a special focus on woman’s and children’s rights as a cultural issue. We are responsible for monitoring and documenting the ongoing abuses of these rights and the pursuit of a transitional justice system. It will be equipped to address the historical legacy of human rights violations in Syria. With cooperation from civil actors working in this field regionally and internationally. Vision: At Alkawakibi all aspects of the organization from the board of directors to the activists in several countries strive for excellence in the field of human rights advocacy. We aim to become the most trusted name in the field of human rights activism in our geographical scope. Message: •To promote respect for human rights in Syria through documentation of violations and the publication of those reports to the public. •Deployment of civil thought and human rights culture in Syria •To promote the participation of vulnerable groups in Syrian society (Women-child-the disabled.)

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

â&#x20AC;˘Cooperation with all parties involved in the construction of a real transitional justice system in Syria through studies and recommendations. The establishment: Alkawakibi Organization was founded in 2012 in Antioch Turkey. Taking responsibility to address Human Rights violations in Syria and asylum countries, in addition to the dissemination of civil thought and HR culture and the work for a real transitional justice in Syria. Our team of activists are working on the front lines in Syria; we have gained the confidence of donors, and instigated many important projects. We have opened offices in many countries including; Syria, Turkey, Sweden, and the United States. Alkawakibi are issuing its own magazine electronically and in paper monthly, to rise awareness on HR culture, we distribute it inside Syria and for many organization whom are interested in the Syrian crises.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Our Partners

Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the support of human rights defenders

German Agency for International Cooperation

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

We invite you to visit our website to learn more about all the activities and reports from Alkawakibi www.alkawakibi-sy.org You may also find us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ALKawakibiOrganization And you may also view our twitter feed at: https://www.twitter.com/ALKawakibiOrganization

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Introduction The Syrian people started a popular revolution in March 2011. They cried out demanding their natural rights, which had been stolen by Syriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oppressive regime. The people of Syria carried the flags of freedom and dignity. But the regime dealt with these demands in the cruelest ways imaginable. Leaving no atrocity undone in an effort to quash the revolutionary ideals of youth. Their brutal and merciless attacks on unarmed civilians lead young men to take up arms to protect their families and homes. This unwarranted series of actions transformed Syria into a stage for regional and international conflicts to play out. This clash of armies has lead to massive human rights violations by all parties involved in the conflict, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Syria has a very poor record for reporting on human rights violations. This is a systemic issue enforced on the people of Syria by the secretive ruling family. Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization has decided to put this guide in the hands of researchers and human rights monitors in Syria and in the Arab world. To help them continue their work, and in hope that we will achieve lasting results both investigators and organizations alike.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Index Section One: Human Rights Terms Section Two: Goals and Objectives of Documentation Section Three: Documentation Process Elements Chapter One: The People Who do the Documentation Chapter Two: The Required Information Chapter Three: Information Resources Chapter Four: Evaluating Information Chapter Five: Documentation Chapter Six: Stages of the Documentation Process Section Four: Forms and Methods of Documentation Chapter One: Forms Chapter Two: Testimony Chapter Three: Monitoring and Control Chapter Four: Supporting Documents Chapter Five: Visual Documentation Chapter Six: Interview Section Five: Problems and Obstacles of Documentation Chapter One: The Difficulty of Access to the Event Location Chapter Two: Security and Safety of Field researchers Chapter Three: Contradictory Information and Concealed Information Chapter Four: Fear of Giving Information Chapter Five: Lack of Information Sources Chapter Six: Witnesses Inability to articulate Chapter Seven: The Nature of the Questions Addressed to a Witness or Victim Section Six: Reports Section Seven: The Protection of Workers in the Documentation and Preservation of Information and Confidentiality. Section Eight: Documentation Methodology Chapter One: Prepare Documentation Protocol Chapter Two: Interviewing Chaptor Three: Collecting Evidences Chapter Four: Storing Evidences Section Nine: Violations Types. Extensions

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section One

Human Rights Terms

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Terms:

Field Researcher: The person who is doing the documentation, according to the topic and context. Monitoring: A wide concept consists of all shapes and ways of observing real situations on the ground whether it is positive or negative. Monitoring determines violations and patterns that may occur on the ground, making monitoring our warning radar for violations on the ground, providing the necessary foot work which will lead to eventual systemic investigation and documentation. The concept of human rights monitoring: It is the monitoring and analysis of the human abhorrent human rights situation in the country or a particular context and involves human rights documentation on the systematic collection of information and analysis in order to improve the protection of human rights. Seeking Facts: Is the process of searching for truth at the time of the violation, it aims to gather information and facts and evidences, and at the same time ensure its accuracy and credibility, in order to prove the occurrence of the even or violation. Documentation: Documentation stage comes after the monitoring and investigation, a process of building a log file on a specific violation includes all documents and evidence of the occurrence of the violation International human rights law: Is a group of laws that maintain the minimum standards each state must meet in dealing with its citizens. Specially particularly vulnerable groups such as women, children and refugees. Basic human rights include but are not limited to; the right to not be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, the right to a fair trial, and the right to establish associations with others freely. Basic documents that constitute the international human rights law: They are; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR.) International Humanitarian Law: It is an independent set of laws governing the behavior of the parties, whether they are states or not, involved in armed conflict. Basic documents that make up the international humanitarian law: The four Geneva

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Conventions and the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions issued in 1977. Currently Syria is not a party to recent protocols. However some of the rules contained in those instruments, which have international widespread support make it binding for Syria as well. Serious humanitarian violations of international law (Laws of Armed Conflict): These are crimes subject to prosecution in The International Criminal Court. These violations include forced displacement or the deliberate killing of civilian populations. Third Common Article of the Geneva Conventions: In the case of the rising of an armed conflict with no international character in the territory of a High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound do apply, as a minimum, the following provisions. 1.)Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those who are unable to partake in combat due to illness,k wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely. Without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria and for this purpose, prohibits the following acts with respect to the above-mentioned persons and shall remain prohibited at all times and places. - Violence to life and person. In particular murder of any kind, mutilation, cruel treatment or torture. - Taking hostages. - Aggression upon personal dignity in particular humiliating treatment. - Sentencing and penalties without previous trial before a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees to all people. 2.)Wounded and sick persons should be protected and given access to medical treatment. The International Committee of the Red Cross may offer its services to the parties of the conflict, and the parties of the conflict should have further efforts by means and special agreements on implementation of all other provisions of this agreement.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section two

Documentation Goals & Objectives

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Documentation Objectives: The process of documentation is long, composite and comprehensive. Efforts aim to: 1.)Protect and promote human rights and the dissemination of materials to raise awareness on the rights each individual is due. 2.)Uncover the truth in preparation for violators to be held accountable for their actions, delivering justice to their victims. 3.)Statistical collection and routine inspection as proof of various patterns of abuse. To illustrate and provide evidence to prove that a systemic policy of violence and human rights violations exists inside Syria. 4.)Construction and maintenance of an archive of investigated human rights violations for statistical analysis for later studies, interventions and research. As crimes committed and documented through a professional documentation process can be of later use for multiple reasons. Although it is often difficult to imagine the possibility of holding the perpetrators of crimes accountable long after their occurrence, historical experience has shown the possibility of prosecution and trail for some serious crimes and violations after many years. Because the documentation processes was conducted in a professional manner, it was able to be used as evidence in trials for crimes long past. Any human rights organization planning to work in the field of documentation in preparation for the start of their programs should clearly answer the following questions. –Why are we documenting? –What are we going to document? –How will we document? Being able to answer these questions is essential to developing a workable business plan. These same organizations will need to be able to provide convincing answers to the people when asked questions like these; –What are these questions for? –What are the benefits and risks of giving truthful answers?

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

The answer to these questions will determine the course of the work needed of the human rights organization. Business plans and goals may need to be reevaluated or altered. Documentation is not an end in itself, it is a means for an important means for the work of human rights organizations. Specially those facing military occupation as is the case in Palestine or Iraq, as well as workers that find themselves at the center of an armed conflict, or operating under the rule of an authoritarian police authorities, such as is the case in Syria. Documentation is a tool to uncover the truth through the collection of true and accurate information at the site of reported violations. Documentation also aims to prove that a pattern of violence exists, pointing towards a systemic issue rather than individual excess. If the data collected indicates a systemic issue maybe responsible it must be acknowledged that the possibility exists that these systemic issues may have been brought about deliberately. If this is true then the only plausible remedy is a tidal wave of human rights education for young and old alike is the only cure. A great deal of documentation is necessary to compile predictable statistical data regarding the patterns of human rights violations. The nature of any organization will be linked directly to the target of their work. Organizations may choose to document for many reasons, including but not limited to; Legal intervention, advocacy and lobbying for the defense and protection of human rights, while others decide to intervene directly with the concerned authorities, including those who decides to work on accountability and prosecution of those responsible for crimes. These efforts cannot succeed on the ground unless the human rights organizations are kept up to date on the situations as they arise. The success of these activities is widely dependent on surveillance. Immediate knowledge that a crime has been reported directly impacts the credibility of reports from any organization. And credibility provides weight for any organizations capable, or willing, to exert pressure locally or internationally in an effort to prevent future violations. As a first step to stop the violations is to urge parties concerned to intervene and stop violations before they can be committed. This does not include the weight exerted on perpetrators of crimes who will face prosecution for their violations. Who can make use of professional reliable documentation? This question is linked to the nature and objectives of the organization wishing to pro-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

vide services. There are many uses for documentation and many organizations require the gathering of statistical data before they are able to take funding to enact projects. Some organizations that may find use of our database include; 1.)If the nature of the organization is dependent on accurate reliable up to date information to implement projects. 2.)An institution concerned with legal analysis and may provide intervention and/or focus on the legal accountability of those responsible for violations. The optimal way to gather information is through the development of files which require the provision of specific information in terms of form content. Such as statements, reports and evidence(videoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medical reports and media statements.). 3.)Any organization filling the oversight role, who issues periodic reports on the reality of human rights. 4.)Those human rights organizations that focus on advocacy, strategy, and the creation of pressure for the change of specific policies or local laws that violate human rights.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section three

Documentation Elements

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Chapter one: Researcher Every researcher must maintain neutrality in the face of their observations. They must make a solid commitment to observe the ethical obligations of the researchers position. The following is the code of conduct for all researchers in the human rights field. 1.)Researcher must maintain objectivity and neutrality. Each individual researcher is required to provide objective accounts while maintaining impartiality in his work throughout the process of documentation and investigation. The researcher should document facts impartially as they are on the ground including concrete facts. Without influencing the statements of the victims or accused intentionally or unintentionally. Allowing personal observations can lead to inaccurate collection of information, neglect or ignoring facts weather intentionally or unintentionally. The most important characteristic of the commitment is a professional impartiality and commitment to the truth. 2.)Maintaining credibility and accuracy. Credibility and accuracy are two of the key elements for the success of the documentation process, and therefore the researcher must always keep in mind his own credibility. They cannot make promises that cannot be fulfilled. It must be clear during interviews with victims and witnesses that the nature of the researchers work is documentation rather than intervention. 3.)Integrity and professionalism. Researchers must commit to treat all victims and witnesses being interviewed with respect and courtesy. Researchers will complete honestly only the tasks assigned to them, they will not change the facts researched to serve personal purposes or any other goals, even when those goals are considered noble. The researcher must also deal with each task with professional excellence. They should poses the capacity for knowledge, a drive to work hard, and a commitment to efficiency, while maintaining intensive attention to details. Hearsay will not be accepted as credible statements. All witnesses and victim must have directly witnessed the crimes being committed. Hearing a story is not enough to build the foundation of a strong case against the accused. 4.)Open to accept everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accounts. The researcher must posses strength in listening and observation. They must never underestimate the weight of any piece of information. They must document every-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

and victims as well, accommodating any opinion or position in front of them without showing any resentment, even when statements contradict with personal conviction. The researcher must also pay attention to gathering facts to build a dossier of evidence. They must always keep in mind that they are not there to pass judgment. It is wise to consult with officials when faced with a complex issue or a difficult case arises. As well in the case that the researcher becomes confused and may need a team to gather accurate impartial information more effectively. Regular debriefings must be conducted after all investigations completed and on a regular basis with the documentation team. So that every researchers reports are constantly being evaluated allowing for the identification of patters or gaps in reports early on. There may also be a need for the use of contractors from outside the team. Examples include; legal advice, or military experience on the implications of some aspects of the documentation process. 5.)Maintaining speed and accuracy in all documentation The researcher must show readiness and ability to fully cope with any event, they must enjoy the spirit of the initiative, to overcome the difficulties in following up the event if it occurs. In order to facilitate the collection of evidence and interview witnesses or victims, and to build the database, so that the organizations may implement the proper proceedings to enact appropriate intervention. The researcher must have professionalism, discipline and knowledge. They must maintain an objective behavior and avoid prejudices, they must communicate with respondents in a clear and forthright manor when dealing with complex issues. They should also memorize standard questions as eye contact with witnesses is often necessary to maintain excellent observational awareness. In the course of their work the researcher may encounter circumstances where witnesses or victims exhibit agitation or aggression. Therefore, it is important to know when to end the interview or take a moments break. We must always comply with the principle of never causing harm while maintaining a commitment to completing the work necessary to compile accurate reports, good judgment must always be exercised in these cases. Follow-up: The process of documentation and the investigation process is reflected through the follow-up. Therefore the researcher must acknowledge the necessity of follow-up interviews. As new information maybe revealed after time has passed.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

6.)Respect the privacy of others. When the researcher is lead to uncover secret or personal information about any person involved in the investigation. Researchers will conduct meetings and interviews often they will enter the homes of their interviewees and may as a result find a lot of personal information about them. However every detail must be documented as no detail is too small to be applicable to future investigations. So the question is, where is the line drawn? Where should documentation stop and privacy be respected? It is the duty of the researcher to respect the privacy of these individuals. While you should possess researcher sensitivity towards victims and their stories. During the interview, the researcher must take into account the mental status of the victim of torture or sexual harassment, and accept that the victim may not find it easy to recount their whole story at one time. Even though a great deal of time maybe spent with the victims of violent assault and their families, confidentiality must be respected at all times. The researcher must not reveal what he saw or heard anyone say or do that might lead to harm the reputation of the family or any single person. 7.)Non-disclosure of information and maintaining the confidentiality of the source. Confidentiality is an important principle in documenting human rights violations, because any laps in adherence to confidentiality rules could result in serious consequences for victims and witnesses, as well as the researchers themselves. Special measures must be adopted to protect the confidentiality of the information and identity of victims and witnesses. This is specially crucial considering the potential consequences in relation to integrity and community trust in the organizations and their activists. Primarily do no harm: The most important duty of the researcher is to protect victims of violations and victims. Therefore it is not acceptable to inflict additional damage on victims. For example, wen the researcher needs information from victims or witnesses to help them, and at the same time, fear of exposure is a risk as a result of the information given, the researcher should put the safety of victims at the top of his priorities in all cases. Take what ever steps necessary to ensure their safety while obtaining the necessary information. It is not permissible that the human rights violations document the safety of respondent physical, mental or emotional health account. Therefore, the person does not expose the safety and security of the respondent at risk. So the corresponding organiza-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

tion should include prevention measures. For example, to maintain the confidentiality of the interviews and the identity of the respondent, unless the respondent expressly agrees to the disclosure of his identity. Maintaining the safety and security of interviewees is the first priority of all researchers. They should take the necessary measures to protect them. 8.)Commitment to the limits of the tasks entrusted to the researcher Keep your professional boundaries between you and the respondent.. Does not seek to build friendly relations with the respondents, to not provide them with tips or personal information. That does not mean that one should treat respondents as indifferent. The mere inquiry into the status of their families, and their safety and living conditions will help in establishing a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, enabling you to conduct the interview without and expectations. The researcher must never pay money to the respondents for their participation in the interviews. But the documentation team will consider the possibility of covering the costs of any transfer of other incidental expenses incurred by the respondents as a result of their participation in the interviews. It is the responsibility of the teams to avoid pledging financial support to respondents, except for reimbursement of expenses incurred by them in order to participate in the interview. Financial promises outside the incurred expenses for transportation could undermine the credibility of the testimony. Respondents might at times expect financial gains for their testimony even when clearly expressed as part of the goal of the interview. Therefore, we must make it abundantly clear to avoid any expectations of this kind. It is imperative that we inform all respondents that the work of the organization they represent is limited to research and documentation exclusively, and that it does not include the provision of relief assistance. It also serves to clarify that the organization refrain from assisting the respondent physically for reasons of credibility and to avoid conflicts of interest. If you are asked to help the respondent, they no longer fall within the professional permissions required to continue with their interview. Refer them to the appropriate organizations capable of providing relief. 9.)Understand the overall context Directly before your task, be sure to gain a solid understanding of the context of the

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

historical, cultural, political and military job site. Researchers must maintain operational and situational awareness at all times including preparation for entry into the areas where violations have occurred. This preparation includes research concerning the conflict and other cultural norms for the area. It is necessary for researchers to have a confident understanding of the communities or sub-groups that will meet them and get to know the customs, language, religion, history, and family social structures. If you are not in contact with local community leaders during the course of your business in the area, try to make contact with local community leaders to gain tips on local prevailing social dynamics.

Chapter Two: The Required Information 1.)The first piece of information that must be obtained is an answer to the nature of the violation. Next is to obtain information about the victim, witnesses and perpetrators, in order to determine the nature of the violation and the crime alleged. After the nature of the crime is ascertained, the appropriate method should be pursued in the further investigation and documentation process. Each organization has its way of documentation and requires specific documents must be filed based on the nature of the violation. Every effort to collect information that can help to determine the legal elements of the alleged violation within safety parameters must be made. Including previewing the event site, interviewing witnesses, collecting physical evidence, taking pictures of the site, and tracking media statements from both formal and informal media sources. Including monitoring news sources suspected of standing behind the violation. 2.)The second piece of information that must be obtained is about the person who has been violated. Weather an adult or minor, civilian or military, prisoners or detainees, dead or alive, male or female. 3.)The third is information about the accused offender or perpetrator. Every effort must be made to ascertain the identity of the accused offender. This maybe one of the most difficult tasks a researcher faces. Many offenders often attempt to hide their identity. So the researcher must be very thorough in documenting his research questions.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

4.)The fourth and final objective for documentation is obtaining objective statements from eyewitnesses. It is the most important to find witnesses willing to dictate and sign their first hand accounts of alleged crimes. Researchers must estimate the legitimacy of witness statements by comparing the various accounts of the alleged violations. Then they must analyze the results of the comparison in the context of the information in their possession.

Chapter Three: Information Resources The global communications revolution provided a lot of ways to send and receive information, such as; The Internet, television stations, satellite news papers and cellular phones. Advancements in communications has made the world seem like a small village, giving everyone access to information simultaneously. These advancements facilitate the task of documentation with the global ease of access to information. It is necessary to construct a broad network of relationships that the researchers vet and can trust to provide accurate surveillance and reports from the area. When a trusted network is achieved it will be quick to receive reports from one area with a reliable network. Thus aiding search teams with valuable intelligence. In this way our activists cannot be handy capped by relying on the media for reports. Media is not reliable for information purposes due to the lack of accuracy where media is concerned as well as cases so keen to scoop without looking into and verifying the details of stories published. It is also impossible to rely on those who turn to rumors, specially if the region is witnessing a political conflict, military, political factionalism or sectarian conflict, in these places information is often inaccurate or exaggerated. In cases like this facts are often blurred or information concealed for different reasons. For this reason it is necessary to continually extent a trusted support network of activists available to supply information on location. These sources can very from other human rights activists, journalists, lawyers, political parties, institutions, associations and unions, and preferably available in the member of that networks minimum specification in order to count them as an accurate source of information.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Chapter Four: Evaluating Information The act of documenting human rights violations is meant to prepare information about patterns of abuse. To create a database with ease of access to recall specific reports and events. Multiple uses exists for a search-able database containing accurate documentation of human rights violations by location. Because human rights violations often occur in violent and difficult ambiguous conditions, and amid the polarization of emotions and feelings, it is often difficult to ascertain the quality and accuracy of the information collected by the field researcher. This is where the personal experience and wisdom of researchers come into play the most. The researcher must evaluate all of the information collected. Evaluations will be aimed at obtaining the truth first, maintaining the integrity of the investigation regardless of the position and opinion of the researcher. The degree of quality, accuracy, necessity and credibility are often uneven and relative, so the researcher always must aim to the highest possible level of accuracy for the information under ambient and all possible circumstances. The quality of the information will be viewed by the reasons for database query. For example, if the target is to get statistics and figures, the quality of information is evaluated differently from those of the judicial proceedings. Whether domestic or international,k as they typically require a high level of evidence. It is a lot of work for the researcher to obtain the best information possible in light of the surrounding circumstances. Or in the face of limited possibilities such as non-availability of weapons experts, the lack of specialized laboratories, lack of experience in criminal investigation. Factors that help to ensure the accuracy and validity of the information. 1.) The degree and detail of information. A.) You get all the details no matter how insignificant, the more you document the more details, the better quality information. The details will help others understand all aspects of the event. Therefore it is in the researchers best interest to maintain a high level attention to detail at all times when taking reports or making their way to investigation sites. It is imperative that the researcher make detailed observations of structures and locations not based on just road signs but land marks as well. So that future investigations will not be thrown off by location confusion. It does not matter if the researcher documents detailed information on the social situation of the respondent. For example, if you were not related to the event of violations were not taken against

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

B.) Harmony and coherence of information. The researcher must be careful that the information documented is interconnected, integrated, sequential and without gaps or inconsistencies from the beginning to the end. If gaps or contradictions exist, it is expected that the researcher provide a justification and explanation. The emergence of contradictions or gaps indicate that something is missing or incorrect. This is to be expected and appears in many of the files, but it does not effect the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in the file in case it is justified and simply explained. If the contradictions are serious and flagrant, or if they completely undermine the integrity of the file, for example there is a conflict between the statements of the victim and the witness in their statements about the violation. This would not be considered a big contradiction of it revolves around the existence of a difference in just a few minutes. However if the difference is big like hour or days, this contradiction is too big and the researcher is obligated to put a stop to their investigation. C.) The presence or absence of supporting elements or claims refuting the report. If the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s account obtained by the researcher is supported by statements of witnesses which confirm it, of if there is a researcher with a medical certificate or postmortem medical examination supports the claims of inflicted injuries. Then it is said to support the information obtained by the researcher. This type of evidence supports and strengthens the information provided. The more supporting evidence the researcher is able to collect the higher quality of information, and the more credibility will be given the report. D.) How much information Indicates to a certain pattern: when researcher get many repeat information indicating a specific violation, this increases the accuracy of this information, and thus the violation, which lead us to the fact that there is a systematic policy behind those violations and it did not occur because of an isolated individual act here or there. Thus the researcher has to wonder whether the information in his possession indicate to the occurrence of a single and isolated violation? Or it is indicate to the occurrence of similar and repeated violations in the same area. E.) The length of time from the collection of information. It is important to collect and document information immediately after the occurnce of violations. In order to access the information and evidence quickly. Taking information from the victim or witnesses after the event has just finished is best because they will remember facts more accurately and with ease shortly after the event. Where as if they

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

were interviewed weeks or months after the event, their memory will not be as accurate, information maybe out of date, the slower the researcher is at locating and interviewing witnesses and victims, the greater the loss of information and evidence. The researcher should pay a lot of attention to timing and information, it maybe that a victim or witness in the first direct moments after the event may experience disorientation or lack of mental focus. Because the event may have sent the victim into a shocked state. This state could make the information they may give inaccurate. The best time for an interview is within a day or two of the incidents occurrence. So that the victims or witnesses have had time to calm down and process the events. After a victim has had time to process the violation they will become better witnesses and their information more reliable. It is the role of the researcher in the field to evaluate the mental status of all victims and witnesses. Preferably researchers will follow this method in cases where the institution does not need to be informed on the same day of the issuance of the complaints. 2.)Certain general measures should be implemented to achieve the highest quality of information. •Know and trust sources of information for field workers. Be fully informed of the circumstances in which allegations of violations occur. •Maintain a field researchers touch and demeanor. Check all details at every stage of investigation. •Ask for the names of victims and the details associated with them. •Use caution and precision regarding the mysterious or generalized information. •Do not rely on media reports or rumors, but do support the information with evidence. •Finally the researcher must depend on his ability to rule and evaluate. Good judgment is necessary specially when doubts are present, and specially when the researcher questions the validity or reliability of the information without omitting the brief information on file that has been documented will be told through the perspective of the field researcher who documented the file.

Chapter Five: Documentation The field researcher during any process of documentation or the analysis of virtual information in his possession in order to verify the authenticity and accuracy of information. But he may find himself in front of a document similar to the cases of the criminal justice investigation, which requires the presence of crews or individuals qualified to do this kind of investigation. With skills and told enabling them to gather information

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

researcher. However he must deal with these issues as quickly as possible and not allow them to become overlooked. To that the authentication process is possible. In the event that limited resources are available researchers must document in detail all of the possibilities for documentation of the violation. The process of investigation. 1.)Investigation: A systemic process designed to ensure that the conditions and actions that led to the violation. Basically attempting to collect evidence about the violation,k so that the evidence indicates the validity of the information about the violation. The perpetrators, victims and any information that proves the occurrence of the violations or crimes. In this sense, human rights organizations may launch the investigation, which is contrary to the criminal investigation which should be a legal form. 2.)Evidence: Definition, Types and Specifications: A.) Evidence: Is anything that would provide information about the incident being investigated. Information that points toward truth and strengthens the validity of the claims either directly or indirectly. This material maybe used by judges as raw material during their search for verifiable facts. It will be basic consequential evidence and will encourage the process and add credibility and accuracy to honest claims. B.) The types of evidence: Direct and indirect evidence Direct evidence: Is a direct way of proving the truth of claims without having to interfere. For example, being a witness to someone pointing a gun directly into someone and shooting. That took hold after the observation is the direct evidence of the process of murder. Indirect evidence: Is any evidence that does not prove the claims directly. For example, the witness saw less people on the ground and bleeding from the head. Insisting that someone had shot him with intention to kill him. While the possibility remains that he was simply the victim of a stray bullet. Evidence is classified into three groups: 1.)Physical Evidence. Any physical eye witness would provide information about the incident, so that the information is reliable and can stand alone. Such as the victims body, the user of arms, ammunition, event area, computers and means of communication, recorded tapes, audio or video recordings, and images. These are materials that can be detected, tested

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

with scientific precision. To include radioactive materials or toxins. 2.)Editorial Evidence. A generic term that includes statements made by victims, witnesses and suspects. It relies on the credibility of authorized witnesses. As can be media or press reports of violations. 3.)Documentary Evidence. Includes forms, documents and messages, all material that can be considered written evidence. Therefore, it becomes important to approach documented crime scenes with an open mind, to not anything, and to try to find anything that would lead to new information about the violation. To locate all evidence and document how it was found include photographs, position in which it was found, and preserve it so that it cannot be damaged. It is important to portray the event, location and the victim to the field investigators for interviewing. So that investigators can attempt to collect further evidence. C.) Elements of Crime. Where the elements of a crime are divided into two parts the acts rues and mens rea. 1.) Actus Reus: Prohibited conduct committed by the accused, noting the consequences of that behavior, which makes it a crime, and describes the required conditions that be carried out in light of specific behavior, in order to constitute a penal offense. 2.) Mens Rea: A Mental situation is responsible for the person who was involved in the offense, and here you can not gain access to the mind of the perpetrator to know the intention, but it can be inferred through some of the evidences.

Chapter six: Documentation stages

1.Scouting of violation place and its circumstances, so that to build an initial perception. A field researcher should reach the crime scene or the place where the violation occurred as soon as possible, and visit the site, accompanied by witnesses or victims before taking depositions or writing reports, for conducting a preliminary investigation

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

and to identify the location geographically. He should try to find evidence, to make sure of the place, the presence of witnesses or the victims or the offenders during the event, all of that helps in the writing an accurate and sequenced report. 2.Identification of the parties to the relationship. ÂŤWitnesses, the victim and the offenderÂť Before identifying the parties to the relationship, a field researcher should listen to everyone. It would be wrong not to listen to anyone who has willingness to give information, for the importance of collecting more information as much as possible concerning the incident itself, the victims and the perpetrators. This should be followed by identification of the parties to the relationship violation identifies, the victim whether it was alive or dead, and then identifying the most appropriate witness or witnesses who will depend on the testimony of the other witnesses. The field researcher might meet a witness, who is important but does not have the ability to focus or give a benefit, or the witnesses might not agree on the same offender means, or there is a conflict in the statements of witnesses. For this, a professional field researcher should select the witnesses very carefully; this task needs an open minded and deliberate researcher in order to avoid falling as a victim of some unscrupulous, curious or private purposes witnesses. Someone might be able to convince the researcher that he could be an important witness; the researcher discovers that this witness did not see anything, but collects some stories from accounts of the others. For this, it is necessary to use the intuition and discretion of the researcher, in order to make sure if this witness is relevant to give testimony. Whenever identifying the eyewitnesses, the researcher has to identify the nature of the offender, throughout the statements of the victim or witnesses and the nature of the event. However, in some cases, especially those related to execution of crimes outside the scope of the law or of torture, the researcher may not find even one witness. The reason is that offenders were keen not to leave evidence against them during their implementation of the crime, or when the crime was committed by the national security apparatus, where witnesses scared to testify for fear of being compromised. 3.Collection of information from the parties and analysis: It might be easy for a researcher to gather information from victims or witnesses, but how can the information be collected when the perpetrators are trying to hide the facts? Here the field researcher could resort to a variety of sources to gather information. As an example of that, the declaration or security military responsible for a campaign of arrests and assassinations against specific targets through newspapers or television, could be considered as important documents and evidence to the task, while the armed

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

forces military movements in the vicinity of the crimes and abuses area, helping to determine who committed the act, and so the collection of information from the parties concerning the violation is not lacking at all. No matter how few it is, but it exists. After visiting the site of the event and meeting the victim, witnesses and other parties that may have a relationship, such as doctors or paramedics or security men, and collecting testimonies, written reports as well as collection of private documents especially required medical reports, it is imperative for the field researcher to the study and analysis all available documents and pictures carefully as a professional investigator, trying to discover the discrepancies omissions, or gaps, and make sure the sequence and logical event according to the collected information, followed by a writing a report, which shows the researcher analysis of all collected documents, in addition to his personal estimation and evaluation at the end. It is necessary that the field researcher is trying to detect and to clarify any contradiction at the moment the documentation, as well as to fill the gaps, means attempting to do that before taking depositions, as an example, What will save him a great effort and shorten the investigation period, but if he could not do that then he has to go back to the field in order to complete the file. 4.The collection of physical evidence relating to the violation: During his visit for the event site, a field researcher must look around the site and check it carefully, and collect what he finds of evidence, even if they are simple, such as casings of bullets, the nucleus of bullets, blood stains, cigarette butts, medical instruments. All of them are important evidence if the technical means such as experts and laboratories are available. It is also useful in terms of being evidence to give clues about the event, for example, if the researcher found some of the medical supplies, this could mean that medical aids were offered to the victim locally. Here he has the opportunity to show evidence that aid was provided to the victim, while he if he found quantities of blood stains this means that the victim was left to bleed to death, and here he must deny or prove this hypothesis, either through witnesses or medical reports. The failure of finding the remnants of medical supplies does not mean that assistance has not been provided to the victims by the perpetrators. Or the perpetrators might have resuscitated him inside a car, while the bullets and empty cartridges may indicate the quality of the used arms.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section four

Forms and Methods of Documentation

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Chapter one: The form

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

It is a document that containing a set of sequential questions and fragmented into sections, so that the first part includes personal information about the victim, such as address, ID number, etc., while the second part includes detailed information about the nature of violation, location and time of event, the violator or the perpetrators, the size and nature of the damage, and the date of filling the form. One of the necessary elements accuracy is that the field researcher has to fill out the form himself during an interview with the affected person, and if this is not possible, then it should be filled by interviewing relatives of the first or second degree or eyewitnesses. It is necessary that this form is to be attached with any relevant documents, for example If the form is concerning murder, it is preferable to attach a picture of the victim, a map of the crime scene, the victim identity, medical reports or the autopsy report. Why this form? Usually this form is used to get to the facts and figures and specific statistics about violations or similar acts, and thus access to the indicators on the violation or event. The questions of the form are associated with the nature of the institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, or the goal that this form has been built for. When the form is belonging to a legal organization, then the nature of the questions is different from that of a social institution, dealing with social situations. To fill out the form correctly, you should pay attention to the following points: 1. The field researcher should understand the form questions well before filling it, in order to get the required answers. 2. Additional papers could be added to the form if the space to answer is not sufficient, with a note indicating a clear title for the additional answer on the page with the exact punctuation. 3. Write the answer in the exact location, and it must be clear and straightforward and clear handwriting while avoiding write-ons and redundancies 4. All documents and papers that are related to the form must be attached. With a simple explanation for these attachments, for example, if the attachments include pictures, you must write the date with simple explanations, preferably writing a ballpoint pen but not with liquid ink or fountain pen in order to preserve the information on the background of the picture. In case the attachments include a map of the place, where the event occurred, you must write a brief description of the event nature and the geographic location, date, place and name of field researcher on the attached map. 5. In case of taking a statement or testimony of a certain event, a field researcher should mention it in the comments box of the form with a name of statement provider, for

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

easy reference to that statement when necessary.

Chapter Two: Testimony

Testimony: It is a statement that accompanied by swear taken from a victim or eyewitnesses only. This kind of testimony has the characteristic to be considered as a legal document that given under oath. The testimonies taken by the judicial and legal authorities must be distinct from those taken from the actors in the field of human rights, where such testimonies could be adopted by international organizations, including human rights, whenever basic elements such as clarity, precision, sequence and integration are available, with the necessity of including all the details about the event. Methods of taking a statement or a testimony: There is more than one way to be followed to take a testimony, and as follows: 1. The person who takes the statement should write the statement or the testimony directly from the provider, while he asks the provider from time to time until he ends of his report. Here is the field researcher or the documenter is restricted with the style of the provider and his sequence in explaining the event. 2. The documenter should listen to the story of provider while writing clear and detailed notes by the documenter. After ending of the interview, the documenter could write his report later. Then he returns to the testimony provider for signing after reading it to him. One of the advantages of this method is that the documenter takes enough time to write accurately. This method is appropriate in taking long statements especially those need distinctive details such as cases of torture, while the disadvantage of this method, it requires long time to complete a signed report. 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Listening to the statement provider completely before writing the report, followed by reading the report to the statement provider. Knowing that the weak point of this method is to double the effort and time, especially when the event is long. Therefore, attention should be paid during writing the report to the following: A.Sequence in the presentation of details of the event, as the statement lived it, heard it and saw it, accompanied with unit time. B.Mentioning all the details such as time, weight, distance and size. C.The questions of (how, when, where and who) should be answered. For example, if the eyewitness said a person shoots from a distance of 500 meters, then he must explain how he could fix that distance as if to say: 500Meters according to my personal estimation or going to say: almost 500 meters. D.Also it is not enough for the statement provider to say: I found at the scene bullets of large size, it can be classified gun cartridges or artillery cartridges or automatic gun cartridges that are all big, so the best way is to ask the statement provider to give details

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

like saying: they were of Pencil length or they look like cigarettes or they have almost the thickness of a hand finger, so that the size limits become known. E.As for the description of time it is better to say: I heard screams of distress and was almost 8 in the evening or heard the sound of distress and looked at watch in my hand and it was ten minutes after eight in the evening. F.This is when the statement provider uses unclear or understandable words or terms, because of his accent of another area, in this case, his unclear words and terms should be put between two brackets. Same when the statement provider mentions some words which are not Arabic then the language of those words should be mentioned as well as their meanings. In case that both the statement provider and the documenter could not understand the meaning of some words, it is preferable to put these words or terms between two brackets with a sign of not understandable. G.Description of a thing as it is, that means without giving provisions or justifications or personal analysis. In case of eyewitness saw murder of a child who has been shot by a person, it is not acceptable to mention: I saw a male offender shoot a child without justification, but not say he killed the child. It should say: I saw someone shoot from a distance of almost 100 meters on a boy nearly 15 years old who was on his way home, carrying a school bag and has an injury to the head from behind. H.Not to suggest to the eyewitness with anything: it is not right that the researcher asks: You saw here researcher should ask: Have you seen the soldier shoot? I.Writing the statement in clear language to the provider, and taking into account the educational level of a witness or victim, and then reading the report before he signs it. In case that the statement provider cannot read, the researcher should read the report in front of him, and then take the imprint of his thumb if he had no objection. In the case he objected to something, the researcher must rewrite his report as the statement provider wants. J.Make sure that the eyewitness had really watched the events that he mentioned to the researcher. K.Define the violations that took place during the event narrated by the statement provider, the researcher could ask the ambulance drivers who participated in the process. During telling the story, it shows that the army prevented him from performing his work; it means another violation, so it should be focused on all violations that carried out during the event. L.Write-offs and change or fillers, are not allowed, and if that happens, the best thing is to change the paper and re-write; if only a simple mistake takes place and here we can ask of the provider of statement to sign next to the error. Sometimes you can use :( No but). M.Do not leave spaces between the lines. N.Writing personal data of the statement provider: the name, occupation, date of birth,

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

marital status, number of passport or identity card, nationality, and place of residence. O.Write the name and signature provider to report on each sheet of testimony or statement. P. Write the name and signature of the field researcher who wrote the report on each sheet of paper of the statement, in addition to the time, date and place, where it has been done. Testimony language The language style is different from one researcher to another. Testimony could be written in a language of a witness or victim, even if it is vernacular; however some incomprehensible words and terms should be put between parentheses. The statement could be written in perfect classical Arabic language, and the statement provider should agree for that and it should be clear for him. The testimony could be also written in a language that combines classical Arabic and colloquial language. Not just a statement for one event: The integrated and accurate documentation and investigation need to benefit more from the same event this process and for the following reasons: 1 - To make sure of the reality of victim or witness novel. 2 - To make sure of the reality of the events in a case, that witnesses agreed in their testimonies on the same event. 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; To provide a complete overall picture of a witness that may be unable to follow up at a later date and see the full event. 4 - Decline some witnesses of their stories for some reasons of their own, and therefore an alternative must be provided. 5 - To compare the statements of eyewitnesses and the victim and identify which witnesses are more accurate. 6 - Do not take statements of witnesses in front of each other but separately. The necessary steps to get a statement: 1 - Collect general information about the event before taking a statement. 2 - Preparing a witness, by means of giving him an idea about the identity of the field researcher and whom he works for, and the idea about the statement and its importance and how it will be used and what is the purpose of taking it and appropriate time selection to submit his statement. 3 - visiting the event site with the victim or witness so that the field researcher can see for himself the geographic location of the victim sites, witnesses and perpetrators at the site, or find a preview of the evidence and effects that the event left. 4 - Preparing and determining the nature of the questions related to testimony.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Chapter three:

monitoring and surveillance As mentioned above, the monitoring and surveillance are steps that precede the documentation, therefore the human rights organizations should keep their eyes and attentions alert in the field especially during armed conflicts, or in places and times where violations may occur more than others, such as: 1 - Courts: observe the conduct of court proceedings and the resulting decisions. 2 - Prisons, detention centers and police stations: where it could be demanded from families of the detainees, before their visit, to ask questions to their relatives in prison about the information of interest to the human rights organizations, or through direct visits if possible. 3 - Elections: monitoring of all stages of the election, since registration and run up to the event (electoral propaganda) passing through the ballot station, up to the screening and the announcing the results. 4 - Follow-up and the media such as newspapers, television and radio stations. 5 - Speeches and the statements of official bodies. 6- Direct control of the field, such as monitoring the movements or violations of the security services.

Chapter four:

supporting documents They are the documents that prove the occurrence of violation. They describe the violation nature or parts of it. It is significantly useful to obtain these documents, if possible. Some of the supporting documents are the followings: 1 - Medical reports: the reports may be temporary or final; they are issued by official or private sides. 2 - The decisions of the courts: It is important that the language in which it was issued with the possibility of translation. 3 - The decisions and military orders. 4 - Photos and video recordings. 5 - Official statements: preferably to be audio and video registered, but if taken from the press then the the name of the newspaper and its date should be mentioned, with an attached copy. 6 - Abuser justifications or perpetrator confessions: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good to attach the Prosecutors or justification of the perpetrator or recognition if available. 7 - Autopsy report: with clarification if it had been conducted with consent of the family or against their will, and if there is a doctor who represents the family or not. 8 - Statements and neutral documents: This might be issued by a country or a neutral

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

international organization. 9 - Published reports and maps: Here, the source should be mentioned as well as the way how they have been obtained. 10 - The witness or victim hand drawing: it is a diagram of the event location.

Chapter five:

Visual Documentation 1. Video: a live imaging of the violation, such that portrays a soldier shooting a restricted young man. It is also possible to document a complete testimony by video camera or a recorder. If the field researcher felt that it is a strong testimony, so that it is available if and when needed later. 2 - Photos: It means fixed images that indicate the violation, which could be considered as evidence to three possible levels. It could be direct evidence such as a picture of a tank destroying a house. - Or it might be as indirect evidence such as showing an image of a soldier in uniform and near him a young man lying on the ground while he is bleeding. The third type of images is one that shows what appear to be abuse effects, and can be added to the documents as kind of attached documents to support the statement or the form or the report, such as pictures of bruises and wounds resulting of exposure to torture. Concluding remarks: 1 - The field researcher must carry a camera permanently. 2 - Using the notebook to jot down what has been accomplished. 3 - Using pens of the same type and color, especially when writing a statement because the report should be written in the same calligraphy, therefore the field researcher must carry extra pens of the same type always.

Chapter six:

interview A field researcher must be familiar with how to interview, so it is one of the most commonly used means of gathering information, which consists of three stages as follows: 1 - Preparing for the interview through: . Good preparation. The understanding and thorough study of violation under the documentation, concrete well- informed statements and forms associated with the subject, it helps to identify the information that he wants to obtain and identify the questions that will be directed to those who will be interviewed, and therefore it is important to look at everything related to the event subject of the interview, such as what was published in the media and the Internet.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

â&#x20AC;˘ Ensure appropriate time for someone who is offset. It is important to deal with the person who will be conducting the interview at the appropriate time. Lack of adequate time may lead to a rush in the interview that may miss important information, or waste the field researcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time by having to go to meet him, to discover that the time the person gives, does not allow to conduct the interview as researcher wants. â&#x20AC;˘ The importance that the interview be individualized It is important to ensure, as much as possible, that the interview takes place between the field researcher and a witness or victim individually, without the presence of any other people in the place of the interview, that is to avoid: A.Influence of others on the witness B.To prevent the witness feeling embarrassed in front of others, it is not easy for victims of torture and sexual abuse or harassment to talk about their experience publicly. C.Avoid jumbling the mind of a witness or victim, which may hinder his ability to sequence the events, list and identify times and fine descriptions of the violation subject, or even change his words. A field researcher might find himself often obliged to accept the presence of another person in the same place, especially if the interviewer is with a lady whose husband, son or a relative wants to co-exist in the interview, here the researcher should ask that person to listen only and not interfere during the interview. 2.Building of trust and respect of the time spent by a witness or victim. A.On initial meeting with a witness or victim, researcher must shake his hand and ask salutations, thank him for the time allotted for the interview, and then highlight the identity card showing the field researcher name, occupation, the human rights organization that he works for. It is important to call the witness by his name and look at him directly, all of that would give him reassurance and builds trust between the field researcher and the victim or witness. They could exchange any talk in order to create trust and communication. B.Comfortable introduction for someone who is offset. It is necessary to give the Introduction, during which the field researcher explains the nature of his work and the organization he or she works for and what are the objectives of his or her activities in the community, especially in the field of human rights. C.Clarify the aim of gathering information. It is important that the field researcher gives details about how they will use the information he is going to take, why and how this information will be used, highlighting the importance of that in the field of protection and defense of human rights. D.Balancing of researcher between his feelings and accurate information: The field researcher should always remember that the goal of his work is to obtain accurate and correct information, but not drifting behind his emotions during an in-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

terview. Victims who pour out their feelings by talking about what they have suffered from the violation, so as not to lose its ability to assess things and keeps the balance between access to the facts on one hand and be careful to express sympathy and interaction with the victims. Of course it is not required of a field researcher to show impartiality of humanitarian feelings, but he has to keep in mind the humanitarian mission as a defender of human rights and that it must be performed in a professional, with the expressing of sympathy with the victims but at the same time not allowing it to affect his work. E.To make sure that the victim or witness information is the result of real experience. Through concentration of field researcher on the story of the victim or witness, and good control of the way the storytelling and attention to his body language, that can be done by asking the some questions about the same point from time to time. Generally researcher experience plays a big role in his judgment on the validity of the story. Besides not drifting behind guesses, you must be far from the hypotheses put on the victim. A field researcher must always remember that the information told by a witness or victim is a summary of humanitarian experience over it and therefore he has to leave the field for the provider to tell his story as it happened. F. Do not show any kind of judgment during the meeting: During the interview witnesses or victims, a field researcher must avoid showing any kind of judgments, whether positive or negative effects concerning the given information, so as not to lose their confidence and pushes them to end the interview as quickly as possible or cancel it. The researcher should not say phrases such as: True or false, are you sure of what you say, this is exaggerated, such statements reflect the provisions issued by the researcher on the statements of a witness or victim, might think that the researcher accuses him of lying. In case that the field researcher doubts a certain part of information, he should make sure with a way that does not suggest disbelieving a victim or witness. For example, he can pretend that he had heard the information from another person differently, albeit either a victim or witness strengthens and confirms the information, or to change it and make adjustments. By this the researcher reaches the truth without offending or doubting the statements of victims or witnesses. G. Good listening and paying attention to body language: During the interview, the researcher must be a good listener for each word that comes out of a witness or victim and pays attention to their body language. Expressions of eyes and face, the sitting position, movements of hands, as well as tone of voice that means the researcher requires using all of his senses to observe. During the interview a witness or victim might stop speaking and gestures to express what he has is inside, or he acts of expressing his inability to express or inability to

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

continue to talk because of his desire to cry or ashamed to mention specific information such as physical or sexual torture. Here the researcher must help him to express them through his guidance specific interview questions, or terminate the interview as required by the situation. As the field researcher should be aware that a witness or victim passes critical and sensitive moments, after waging a harsh or bitter experience, so the field researcher has to show that he is a good listener and understands what is narrated by the witness or victim. H.Do not give promises: You should not give any promises to witnesses or victims of human rights violations. The field researcher should not promise that he would work to provide help or achieve instant results such as receiving compensations, or bringing the perpetrators to justice. Such promises would put him under constant pressure of eyewitnesses and victims. Also in the case of those promises have not been achieved, this will lose a witness or victim trust in the institution and its work. So the field researcher should be clear, he has to clarify and explain the extent and form of intervention that could be done by the organization, explains the goal of the interview, and the technical methods that such information would be used. I.Avoid speed in completion of the interview: The field researcher should not end the interview quickly for any reason, or to look at his watch so that not to make a witness or victim feel that the field researcher is in hurry, so as not to lose any important information. Terminating the interview quickly might make a witness or victim feels that the researcher disrespects him or the information he gave. J.Use understandable language: Such as the use of colloquial language by talking with witnesses and victims, if it makes them feel that the researcher is closer to them, which facilitates the process of communicating with them. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good that the field researcher asks the people in the interview to talk in colloquial accent if they speak classical Arabic and the researcher discovers that they do not mastered it, so that the interview does not look artificial and prosaic, especially if the interview is recorded with a video camera. K.A permission request to use the name: At the end of the interview, the field researcher should ask the witness whether he wants to withhold his identity or not, and, if requested anonymity, a field researcher has to assure him that he will not reveal his identity, and the information contained on the documents would be used without the use of his name.

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3. What after the interview: A. Writing basic information, space and time, and any information that should be added about the person who conducted the interview: This point is of a great importance and can be performed at the beginning of the interview, with the possibility to postpone it till the end of the interview. This information should include quartet name of the person who conducted the interview, pointing out to place the witness or the victim housing location in addition to their own phone number, or someone close to them to contact him when necessary, such as requirement for additional information or to make sure of accuracy of the information and evidence and facts presented by the witness. The field researcher should always ensures the accuracy of the title and phone numbers, and must confirm the real names of witnesses in cross-checking identity cards to transfer contacts literally and recording their personal card numbers and addresses of witnesses with any additional information thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s required. The field researcher must conduct interviews in witnesses or victims homes, if possible, after visiting the site of the event and take the initial version from them, in, or near their homes, at least to make sure of the address accuracy and all it helps to go back to them again, at any time, when necessary. B. The date of the interviews must be registered clearly and unequivocally, an additional report that narrated by the researcher could be attached to the interview concerning any additional information that is necessary to mention about the person who conducted the interview. In order to clarify some things like correct phones numbers or additional explanation of the witness or victim address or mentioning some of the events that occurred during the interview they could not be recorded. For example, the witness put his mark instead of signing on his name, here is worthwhile to mention the reason, which is the witness does not know how to read and write or because of blindness or physically incapacitated inhibits his ability to sign. It is preferable to take advantage imprint provider in the presence of another person who should sign in front of the researcher after the agreement of the statement provider. The witness may prefer not to mention some details that may tell during the interview, asks not recorded in the record of the interview. C. read the interview content for accuracy and safety: One of the important points that reflects the extent of credibility and professional field researcher who performs the interviews, it is also reinforces confidence with the person who conducts the interview. If he realizes that the field researcher worked on recording and writing what he said almost verbatim, without any additions or modification the interviewee will sign on his words without any apprehension or a sense of fear. Therefore any field researcher who interviews eyewitnesses must re-read what he wrote in the words of the witness or victim in the interview minutes clearly and unhurried-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

ly in front of the person who carried out the interview, with the ability to accept any amendment and correction of information a witness or victim wishes to delete or add, even if he has to re-record the interview to maintain the shape of the interview minutes (Testimony) without deleting or additions that might make the record appear different, or doubt the legality of the statement. In case the witness or the victim pointed out to agree on what was recorded, the field researcher asks him to sign his statement. D. Write a list of names of other witnesses or documents mentioned during the interview to follow later. Summary: To access the information thoroughly to the maximum possible extent through the interview, we should care of the following: • The use of accurate and specific questions. • Take a statement or a report in chronological order of the events; so it becomes easy to note any conflict that could be remedied. • reconsider the apparent contradiction from several angles, by reformulating the questions, if necessary, so that the person who was interviewed might be confused or might not understand the question. • ascertain whether there were witnesses to the incident, the subject of the claim, or any supporting documentation, such as a medical report, supporting documents can help in strengthening the claim • Follow-up and note the person’s behavior, and the sign and body language he uses, in this context, the field researcher must have awareness and knowledge of the impact of culture factors, gender, and mental state. • If the person pointed to possible supporting evidence in modern vernacular, the researcher must try to get clarification or a guide if possible.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section five

Problems and obstacles of Documentation

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Chapter One:

the difficulty of access to the event venue (violation) In-situ field researcher can access the place of the event without any problems or obstacles, but the problem lies in the unusual situation that plagued the state of tension and confusion, as well as risks that may affect the safety and security of field researcher or victims, witnesses and even information obtained by field researcher. In such conditions, that is usual in cases of war or armed conflict or military operations or curfews, as well as demonstrations and mass protests etc. A field researcher has to overcome such obstacles through other ways, that does not constitute a threat to his life, and if he could not, he should try to communicate with the victims or witnesses over the phone, for example, or try to access the place with international committee crews who can move during curfew or passing through those barriers. The researcher should not expose himself to danger or loss of information and confiscation by any party, and work to ensure delivery of that information to the office by other ways. As for the process of documenting internal events, it is sometimes difficult for a field researcher access to the scene to carry out the documentation, as a result of measures imposed by local or security services authorities, such as the prevention of local authorities, the officials and lawyers of human rights organizations to visit prisons to interview detainees and stand on what is going on inside. In such cases, it could work on the launch of a campaign to pressure or activate the supporting and protection umbrella of the organization, locally and internationally in order to achieve pressure on the authorities in order to overcome those obstacles, if possible.

Chapter two:

safety and security of field researcher: Maintaining the security and safety of field researcher is one of the priorities of those in charge of the institution, and should be the same for the field researcher as well, so it is expected that he takes a series of precautions, including: • Always make sure that the field supervisor or direct manager aware of the whereabouts of field researcher in the field. • Always keep the card bearing the institution name in which the field researcher working, and put the card in a prominent place on the chest using the clip and do not put in a pocket or purse. • The field researcher should always remember that his safety is more important than the documentation process. • Avoid being in a dangerous or suspicious places and always be keen to choose the

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

right time to conduct interviews or carrying out the documentation. â&#x20AC;˘ Do not carry a large amount of money or valuables, which could put the life of a researcher at risk.

Chapter three:

contradictory information, exaggeration, hidden information and lies. Of the major obstacles facing the field researcher during his work is contradictory information about the event or a violation, so he should identify the contradictory information that he reached by either the victim or witnesses, and then work on getting other information from other eyewitnesses, then analyze all what collected information to justify or remove the existing contradiction Field researcher may face during the documentation process people (witnesses or victims) who tend to exaggerate the description of what they have suffered from the violation, or trying to hide some information for any reason, or even lying completely, so the field researcher has to assure the witness or victim initially on the importance of the sworn statement, and that the information authorized by him must be true and correct, Otherwise display the same legal accountability clearly, but tactful and in an intelligent manner so as not to frighten the victim and therefore prevent him from giving the testimony. The researcher should explain the importance of true and accurate information, whether in his case or in other issues, so that a full extent of the already signed file could be complete, if challenged the credibility of the whole information or some of them.

Chapter four:

fears of giving information A witness or victim may refrain from giving information for the field researcher, as a result of fear of the party that abused him, or the complete lack of knowledge of the organization represented by a field researcher or a lack of confidence and belief in the cause of human rights. To overcome these difficulties can do the following: 1-The field researcher has to deal tactfully with resistance of a witness or victim, especially with the victims of torture and faces that so delicately because this type of resistance is a natural thing faces most field researchers in trying to get information from people. 2-Related to the victims or witnesses who do not pay attention or are unaware of the importance of monitoring and documenting human rights violations, especially if the violations are wide spread and frequent. The thought of accountability for the perpetrators of such violations. In this case the field investigator has to submit a brief explanation of the importance of human rights with presenting of himself to the witness and to

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

define the institution by some clarifications. The overall objectives of the documentation process, and fulfillments that have been achieved as a result of such information, without falling into the trap of making unreal promises of what he could do for the victim. 3 - Some witnesses may be afraid of revealing secrets that might entail responsibilities, possibly to a military officer or a security personal who saw a murder or torture, here the researcher has to work on convincing the witness with the importance of information and the emphasis on confidentiality, if he insisted on not giving testimony, the fieldworker may ask the witness to tell him what he saw, without taking his name or his personal information, where the researcher could get benefit of information in some other way.

Chapter five:

lack of information sources The field researcher often faces a shortage of sources of information by documenting the violation or an event occurred, for example, the field researcher can get information from a former detainee or a member of the security apparatus, according to the exposure of detainees to torture, but that the security entity refuses to allow visiting the detainee The issue here has become a semi-closed, which makes it imperative for the researcher not to wait for new sources of information only, but sometimes he must create other sources, for example, the institution that employs the researcher can play a media campaign to force that party to allow him visiting the prison. The biggest and the most difficult challenge is when a dead body found dumped in a farm or somewhere, while there is no witness provides information about the event.

Chapter six:

A witness disability of expression During documentation process the field researcher may face authentication people cannot express themselves or what they have suffered from the violation, such as victims of torture or abused people or victims of sexual assault. and here a good field researcher has to present himself and his organization in a simple manner and in a modest language that understood by a witness or victim, and to be keen to promote an atmosphere of intimacy between him and the witness or victim in order to gain their confidence, and to encourage the victim or witness to speak and use the language of the witness as much as possible However, the deal with these groups requires a scientific and practical background with special skills of the field researcher, and, if not available, he can be assisted by someone

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

who has those capabilities. it is possible that a victim or witness is deaf or mute, here are hired who speaks sign language, in such a case it must be mentioned that the field investigator hired someone who is fluent in sign language in his report, and that report is attached with a certificate proving his ability to speak in sign language, if any, it is good that this person is editing a message stating that he worked on the translation and sign it.

Chapter seven:

The nature of the questions addressed to a witness or victim The nature of the questions that directed by the field researcher for the victim or witness should not be in the form of questioning or investigation or a question, but should be of clarifying form. The witness might feel embarrassed or afraid to answer some of the questions that might make him feel that he is under interrogation or investigation, so the field researcher has to be careful in choosing and ask the witness or victim during the interview, and to give him enough time to answer the questions. It is preferable to ask questions slowly and clearly in a simple language when writing testimony within the sequence. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferable to ask the questions slowly and clearly in simple language when writing the testimony within the existing sequence, with the preservation of the existing sequence of information and give the witness a sufficient period of time to answer questions, for example, instead of asking questions such as: Tell me the time and place, exactly? Can be addressed in some other way, such as: Can you remember the time and place?

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section six

Reports

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Reporting is an essential and basic element in human rights work. It should suit the work field and interests of the institution and the scope of observer job and the documenter. Reports are considered as an effective tool in any organization which is keen on a dynamic working and effective communication. Reports that are related to monitoring and documentation have different types as follows: 1- Internal reports: They are reports that are written by an observer or a documenter to be used internally within the frame of organization, which are made up of several types: • Periodic reports: documenting the done work, and be periodically in line with the theme, they could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, half, it is necessary to reflect all the work dimensions that has been accomplished . • Emergency reports: They are reports that submitted rapidly to alert superiors at work to an event or to the importance of movement, the report refers to the practice of a new pattern of human rights violations in order to stop the exercise, or endanger lives of an individual or group, which requires prompt work to protect them. • Reports from the interview: They are reports that are made in order to analyze the consequences of the interview without attachments of the interview board, so that puts the researcher and his personal views about the event, or working to clarify that there are gaps or inconsistencies in the statements of a person who has been interviewed, in order to provide a picture integrated and sequential event. • Reports on specific events: Here the report comes to present the results of an investigation into a violation, such as the assassination process or events or enveloped in mystery, as well as to review a specific issue regarding human rights affairs. 2. The external reports: Reports written by researchers or specialist lawyers in the institution, they are basically depending on information contained in internal reports, where it is important to include all the details, and to use standard terminology, and are committed to a standard methodology in the review and analysis of the events and deal with the issues, so varied purposes of such reports as follows: Events and dealing with the issues, so the purposes of these reports vary as follows: • Reports in order to address the authorities or official sides regarding the human rights affairs for protecting or improving. • Reports written in order to support the legal campaign or lobbying campaign to influence certain policies that violate human rights for stopping it or reducing the power exercise or the dominant side. • The reports required by the United Nations Organization. • Reports directed to the media. First: the basic principles in writing internal reports:

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

• Ensure the accuracy and validity of the information with detail listing: The report should have precision component in listing the event, as the reports are of the means by which the institution’s work depends on substantially, where analysis and legal adaptation based on that information that enhances the credibility and professional search institution, in order to facilitate the instant follow-up process, when necessary. Another important element is the sequence and integration in report writing, so that to make it easier for the legal researcher to access the details easily and avoid returning back to the field researcher for more details. • Speed and without delay Reports concerning conditions or events should be written quickly in order to keep pace with the event. It is not reasonable to write a report about intervention of government or international sides after a very long period of the occurrence of the violation, where it would be impossible to intervene in them afterwards. The report should also be issued directly and quickly in order to keep the issue alive. • A simple introduction: In the report introduction, a simple display of event site should be done. If we are talking about a certain village, it is useful to provide a simple presentation about the village site, the number of inhabitants, the nature of their work, and what surrounds the village. If we talk about the violation occurring in an area outside the city or the village limits, the introduction should also include identification of the site and its proximity to or beyond the kilometers from the nearest a known location. Description of the nature of the place: whether it is mountainous or desert, or of any special features that helps in understanding details of the event. The date and time of the event should be addressed, the nature of the violation or event, who is the victim and who is the perpetrator, eyewitnesses or not, should be mentioned. • View the status of human rights and patterns: The internal report must address to the situation and conditions of human rights in the target region, so that passing what has been monitored of violations and patterns of practiced violations. Through the identification and count, it could be seen that there is a new pattern has emerged, or if there is a pattern that has stopped or is still constant, and therefore if the subject of the report is about violation, such as the assassination, they must pass on the human rights situation in the region in which the violation occurred theme of the report, and determine if it is new or old pattern, spread on a large scale or small, linking events and other abuses. • Showing the basic patterns, whether they are positive or negative: The patterns of violations basically should be mentioned, and to work to compel responsible parties to respect human rights, but it is also necessary to review the patterns

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

of positive practices by official sides for the protection and promotion of human rights, so that to focus the light on the protection mechanisms by the authorities, and to give a positive evaluation that may encourage those practices to continue. It can be utilized in the case being characterized with creativity. If the report, for example, is related with a subject of arrest and torture, it is natural to focus on the patterns and methods of torture practice somewhere, however if the field researcher observes that entities who arrest and interrogation of individuals detained abide by the rules and principles of human rights in dealing with detainees,, and exercise patterns that can be described as positive, then it must be mentioned • The viewpoint of the observer or a documenter in the event and his conclusions: In some events, it is extremely difficult to be sure of the validity and accuracy of information. In spite of all precautions that may be taken, so the viewpoint of the field researcher becomes a mainstay in the evaluation of the whole process of the investigation. If the subject of the report is about murder in mysterious circumstances, and the field researcher found himself, after carrying out a full investigation, reticent on the results he reached. Here he must resort to the past experience and his ability of good governance and the good estimation which he acquired through his experiment, so that to put his estimation and analysis and personal intuition, even if these conclusions are contradictory as indicated by the information reached during the investigation. • Identify the source of the information: In any internal report, it is necessary to refer to the source of the information, and opinion sometimes the reliability of this source, especially if the subject of the report on the violations was not confirmed the fact. Besides, mentioning the source of any information in any report that written is of the professional foundations. • Conclusion: The field researcher here reviews the subject of the report briefly, put his recommendations of the subject and how to deal with it, if the report file is of a murder case, for example, the recommendations of the researcher could be toward an emphasis on the results of the investigation and starting the work on the case, and may be in keeping the file open, waiting for other information, or may be recommendations towards assessing the source of the information being unreliable, for example. • Attachments of all documents that have been worked on: It is necessary to provide the report with all the necessary documents such as medical reports, the autopsy report, photos, and maps, so as to give a complete picture of the report subject. Second: things to consider when writing reports • The clarity in the language: It is a very important issue, so that the report would be considered as a document

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

that legal interventions might be built on, or resorting it after a subsequent period of time, by other people. Therefore the language must be clear and unambiguous to avoid slang. In addition to the fact that the vocabulary used must take into account process of translation into other languages, so it is preferable to use understandable vocabulary for all, but not only in a particular area. For example, if the researcher used the word «brown skin» to describe someone, this word will constitute an obstacle to the translation into English so that it does not mean the black color, while it should be standardized vocabulary using runs from the language of human rights and agreed international law. • The use of the quote when necessary. In many cases, the report needs to include a quote from the words of a victim or witness that makes a report more powerful, and confirms its neutrality during the transfer of the words and not appearing as a source of provisions. • Mentioning the pros, if available, in cases of reports concerning human rights, has been addressed in detail previously. •The report should be provided in time, according to necessity and the subject. It would be useless to delay in many cases. The report subject could need a quick intervention by the institution in which the field researcher works. In this case the delay hinders the work, and intervention becomes ineffective and unnecessary.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section seven

The workers protection in the documentation, information preservation and confidentiality

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

1.Work under a state of emergency: Any human rights organization should not overlook the provision of domestic and international safety net, providing a protection cover, when exposed to attack by the authorities, whether they are formal or informal. Where the network launches pressure campaign, and local and international support, to prevent or stop the attack on the institution The network can provide emergency or temporary headquarters of the target institution, of raid, vandalism or closure or in times of armed conflict, enabling the organization members to continue their work. This measure contributes in the continuation of monitoring and documentation process, hence the provision of alternatives in emergency cases is very important to keep the organization in touch with events. 2- The safety and security of the researcher It is obvious that the safety of the researcher is to be the most important in any documentation process, and thus the institution should take all precautions to ensure the security and safety of its researcher, where care must be taken to safety, even if at the cost is failure to obtain the required information in time, if the field was dangerous. There must be someone in the office who coordinates the work and communicates with field researchers always, realizes a day all their movements and special places they are in stressful situations, in order to intervention of institution in case a researcher at risk The preservation of the security and safety of field researcher is not only a duty of the institution, but it is his duty too. If the field researcher guesses that coming off the field to cover a certain issue that involves a significant risk to his personal security, he should try to find alternative ways and other sources of information, until he would be able to arrive the field, as well as the lack of presence in dangerous places, such as streets with armed clashes, or presence in places that might be exposed to aerial bombardment or artillery, or work in areas unaccustomed dangerous at night, as he must report the headquarter about his movements. The field researcher should reveal his identity for all always, unless it is necessary otherwise. A field researcher must be careful in communicating information in his possession if that is considered confidential, in a manner not to expose him to risk or expose information for lost or Confiscation. If he documented a case and then he has to cross a military checkpoint, he might be exposed to a risk, as well as the information and the victims or witnesses, in case of inspection. Therefore, the field researcher should ensure the delivery of information to headquarter of his organization in some way, such as sent via express mail, if they were documents and records. 3- The safety and security of victims and witnesses The documentation process may constitute a danger to the victim or witness sometimes, so documentation should be done with maintaining the confidentiality and he

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

should be keen not to reveal the identity of the information provider, and here the field researcher should make sure his meeting would be in a safe place and out of sight that helps anonymity. He should work to arrange to meet them in an unwatched place. If the subject is about a victim of authorityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s violation, which monitors the victim and threatens him, the field researcher must make arrangement with the people closest to the victim who replaces confidence; he should avoid the use of phones and e-mails. In cases such as the above-mentioned, it is preferable that the victim determines the meeting place, as he knows more about safe places for him. Besides it contributes to make him reassuring and comfortable during the meeting. The field researcher also has to resort not to write the identity of the victim or witness on the researcher documents which participate in maintaining the confidentiality of the identity of the information provider, and then the researcher should secure the arrival of the documents to the institution, which in turn relay Thread. 4- Documents and records coding In cases where confidentiality of the identity of witnesses and victims is required to maintain in order to prevent exposing them to danger, it should be keen on secrecy by withholding the identity of the information provider during the documentation process and beyond, which drives for the design of a way to save information without wasting identity of the information provider. in the testimonies blocked from publication. Testimonies could be taken of a victim or witness with no written references to his character, but documented in a small note book, until sent to the institution, which in turn keeps them in a place dedicated for that, and keeps indicating the identity of the testimony provider in another place, so that to be linked to testimony provider through symbols and numbers system designed by the institution and have a staff member fully aware of this system, which protects the victim or witness in case the testimony fall in the wrong hands for any reason. 5- Offices security The security of offices is characterized with great importance according to the importance of the documents and records that are kept in the office, in addition to the information stored in the computers, which may be lost due to theft, destruction, confiscation, a malfunction in the computer equipment or fire. The loss of information leads to obstruction or losing the institution the ability of its work follow-up. It is recommended to keep the documents in locked places where passwords should be used on computer systems and make backup copies. The important documents should be kept out of the office after scanning, in a safe place that only one or two persons, who are working for the institute, know about it. Concerning headquarter or office, locks must be put on all exterior doors of the building and on many internal doors. Those doors should have high degree of solidity and quality. No doubt that there are people who want to break into the building, it is likely

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

that they will be able to break any lock in their way, the aim is to delay them as long as possible. so that the presence of locks outside and inside the building can help to delay intruders and allow more time for help to arrive. It is important to provide offices with alarm system against burglar, fire system, as well as cameras system. If an official body who is performing intrusion, in broad daylight and by court or legal order, here, the level of care and caution, and how the organization deals with confidential database that it does not want to be revealed, plays the largest role in information protection and prevention from falling in the hands of entities that want to accessible, through subsequent mentioned information security procedures. The confidential files stored in computers in the office should be deported regularly. They should be stored in a safer place, where they would be under responsibility of one or two of trusted persons, who keep these copies in places that nobody knows about, but them only. Such as bank vault. Important records and documents can be scanned electronically, providing them copies that can be easily be saved, as well. 6 - The security and confidentiality of the information Any human rights institution has a database that represents a source constitutes the majority of its activities. Where this information is divided into two parts: Public information that does not constitute a detectable threat to anyone, but the goal of collecting them, and disseminated through several methods, is to protect human rights. In general this information makes up usually the vast majority of the information base. Confidential information: it is information that must be kept confidential by the institution for the protection of victims, witnesses, and the institution itself. In order to complete such confidential information file, successfully, during the work on building of a war crimes file, in an armed conflict area, it is important to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the victims if the dispute was still going on. Therefore, it is important to provide protection for confidential information of the risks that threatened it and of assault activities, so it could be said that the information security: are the means and measurements that should be provided to ensure the protection of information of the dangers that may threaten its confidentiality and of its existence. Accordingly, the following elements must be available for any information, which needs to be protected: Secrecy: That is to make sure that the information would not be revealed or seen by unauthorized persons. Integration and content safety: is to make sure that the information content is true has not been modified or tampered with or detract from it, in any stage of the documentation process, the processing stages of the analysis and classification of the introduction and sorting, to the saving process in the archive. Continuity of providing information: It must be sure of continued functioning of the

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

information archive system, and the continued ability to access the information, that is, a safe archive system, concerning the information saving and not losing it for any reason, that is the system is effective. It is the duty of any organization that works on issues that need secrecy for protecting the victims, witnesses or even the institution crew themselves, to have caution in dealing with staff and new volunteers who their work requires access to the database of confidential information, if they are unknown already. Unauthorized person must not be allowed to log in to the confidential database. The experience plays a big role in the ability of the organization veteran staff members for judgment or assessment of any new individual belongs to the institution, so that the information would not be penetrated by other sides.. Therefore, it is preferable to select well-known people in advance, if their work is connected with collection, sorting or archiving of confidential information. If is not available, it must be knowledge greatly and make sure of their backgrounds, this could be done by questioning them or ask trusted identifiers about them, and be sure of reality of their resumes. Did they really work for well-known human rights organizations in the past? If so, it must make sure of that, by asking those institutions for letters of recommendation, and then subjected them to a trial period of work for three or six months, where daily life is the real test. The matter needs attention of experienced person with careful observation and slender sense. 7- Safe disposal and erasure of data and information While the organization is no longer involved in some records and documents, but remains keen on protecting its confidentiality, it should get rid of those documents and records in a safe manner, which means that an authorized person is to dispose of those records, and shredding documents by a shredding machine for example, but not to throw them in the waste as they are, and then to fall into the wrong hands. Concerning the electronic data, it must get rid of these data via the secure erasure, so that it would not be retrieved, and therefore safe erasure should be used, which means blur the data to be erased by writing new other data, by this the erased data cannot be retrieved, however blur the data in this way is very difficult to retrieve. However, using advanced techniques and expensive specialized equipment, parts of erased data could be retrieved. it varies depending on the technology and experience. Generally the more times effacement with repeating writing various alternative data, the possibility of retrieving data decreased. Due to technological progress over the past two decades, everybody became a resort to use all means of sophisticated communication such as mobile phones, e-mails and the Internet, video and communication systems via satellites, same with the information, which is recorded, transferred and saved by digital means such as computers, scanning flexible disks and video . Also, working on protection of data against intrusion and eavesdropping is very im-

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

portant. Important data must not be saved on computers that are connected to other computers in the office, which connect to the Internet, so as to protect the data from intrusion and theft. Individuals or specialized companies in the field of electronic technology should be reliable for the institution, so that no information leaking could happen through someone. It is preferable that the institute has a specialized employee who is reliable instead of dealing with those who are outside of the crew.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section eight

Documentation methodology

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Chapter One:

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Preparation the protocol of documentation: The design of the protocol of documentation is considered necessary to achieve the working team goals The design of the protocol has following steps: Goal Setting: Viewing the Background and context Designation of documentation methodology and formation of working group Adoption of a management system The first step: the target identification Ask yourself the following questions: What do you hope to achieve? What are the objectives of the project? Is it a repeat of the current work, or it includes an additional value? What are the results that may consequences of the project? What will be the final product? Step Two: Viewing the background and Context: 1.Select the subject and scope of the project: Be clear in identifying the topic that needs to be documented and investigated, including human rights violations are likely to be occurred. Emphasize the need for the documentation is necessary to achieve the principle of â&#x20AC;&#x153;do not cause any damage,â&#x20AC;? because documentation process, requires the respondents to be engaged in the process might be surrounded with physical or emotional risks. For this reason, specify the scope of the documentation subject, according to available time, money and resources of the organization that you represent. For example, documentation of torture cases According to reports concerning torture that committed by government and opposition forces, the working team may like to document cases of torture in particular demographic frame, for example, with civilians who are currently living or formerly living in a town or a specific area in an attempt to determine a pattern of the human rights violations. 2- Select relevant human rights standards In addition to the above, it is also essential to understanding the human rights standards concerning a subject or subjects of documentation, but, with the variation of violations nature. The organizations which are documenting should update and deepen their understanding of the nature of the conflict and the lowest protection levels available for civilians

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

during armed conflict, for example the prohibition of torture under international law. Prohibition of torture under international law is an absolute ban. Namely, that there are no circumstances justify practicing torture for any state. Torture is prohibited in a numbers of international instruments on human rights and international humanitarian law, and is considered an international crime, and due to the size of international support for the prohibition of torture, all countries are subjected to this prohibition. Torture occurs when causing severe mental or physical pain or suffering. Torture is considered as violation when it occurs: A - With the consent of state authorities or complying for it. B - In the context of an armed conflict, by a party of the armed conflict, it is known that the victim does not actually take part in the hostilities. C - Generally, torture occurs for a particular purpose, such as obtaining information or punishment or intimidation. This could include rape and other forms of sexual violence. 3 - Select the required information and how to get it: When choosing authentication methodology, it is necessary to determine the type of information required to evaluate the occurrence of violations of human rights or not. This information includes: A - Direct sources (such as victims, witnesses and evidentiary materials). B - Secondary sources (such as reports of other human rights organizations, and media reports, etc.). Secondary sources are particularly useful as a mean to verify the information that has been collected from the direct source. UN advises that “the most common rule is to ensure credibility in the fact-finding mission on the human rights of the adoption of the principle of consistency of information with material collected from independent sources. It should also be reliable secondary sources as well. 4 - Select the standard of proof The standard of proof is another element that may be important for the work methodology. Highlights the importance of this component, for example, when the project is not limited to the documentation, but also includes a “fact-finding” that is, to draw realistic conclusions according to documentation activities. In this case, the objectives of the project reflect the goal of gathering “sufficient evidence” to extract relevant conclusions to an alleged violation of human rights. “Sufficient evidence”, or the balance of probabilities, is the starting point for accompanied to the proof standard, which is commonly used in the humanitarian affairs and fact-finding missions concerning human rights. To meet this standard, true event or assumption should be more probable than lack of authenticity. In cases involving the use of relevant conclusions with judicial proceedings, or when these conclusions serve openly blame on certain individuals, it would be appropriate to adopt a more stringent proofing standard.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

For example, when the International Criminal Court accuses an individual with a crime, it requires that the court is convinced of the guilt of the accused â&#x20AC;&#x153;without any reasonable doubt.â&#x20AC;? The third step: design of documentation methodology and the formation of the working group: According to gained knowledge from the first and second steps, you can imagine the approach to be adopted in the documentation process. Try to determine a time frame for achieving your goals on the basis of available material and human resources. Think again of how to form a documentation team, and be keen, when selecting the members, on the importance of preserving credibility of the team, its neutrality, and its independence. It may also be worthwhile to know whether your team members have prior experience in conducting interviews and if they have a good knowledge of the local context and demographic nature, and their willingness to work under stress or individually, and whether their positions were free from prejudices, as well as their ability to communicate with the others. The ideal team consists of experienced individuals in the fields of different areas such as human rights, conflict and law, medicine, health and social care, in addition to professional interpreters, if necessary. There should be a balance between the sexes also when forming the team. Fourth step: the adoption of a system of the management of issues: The documentation teams should develop a safe and effective system of management of issues: And write down the outstanding and uncompleted tasks on dedicated lists for this purpose, and we mean by this: 1 - To keep accurate, detailed and clear records of all done works for each case, including the dates and times. 2 - Preservation of evidence in classified files, we mention, among them: file of sayings of respondents, images file, physical evidence file; documents file, and file of copies of all documents and / or a record of all documents that have been obtained, and file and charts and drawings. 3 - Storing all the files in a safe place. Name of the files should not be clearly tagged. As a precaution additional measure, the files that contain information about the individual and / or the transponder / respondent terms, should have numbers, but should not carry the name of the individual concerned. The lists containing the names of the respondents should be kept in a separate place of files. And it is advisable to keep copies of files and store them in an independent and secure location.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Chapter Two:

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Interviewing First: Preparation: 1. Selection of responders: In most of documentation works in the field of human rights, the direct testimonies of victims and witnesses are to be the main source and the most prominent evidence. As much as the responder was closer to the research subject, as the value of his words increased, but in addition to the direct victims and witnesses, the documentation teams should seeks to expand the scope of their interviews, to include, for example, organizations or government agencies that respond to human rights violations, and members of the local community who are neither witnesses nor victims. Thus, it can rely on this kind of testimony to confirm the results. The choice of the type of search is considered as key issues in the human rights documentation projects, where there are two types: A - Quantitative Research: aims to draw conclusions through a sample of the population where it could generalize what applies on it to the entire population. B - Qualitative Research: aims to deepen understanding of the various dimensions of an issue or a particular social phenomenon. Determine the most appropriate objectives of the project methodology ; for example: If the goal of the project requires the verification of the extent of the spread of a certain human rights violation, the quantitative research is most appropriate. While if the goal of the project is to understand the causes of a certain violation of human rights and its reactions, the qualitative methodology that involves communication with individuals with backgrounds and various perspectives would be more convenient. On the other hand, a large number of projects depends a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies; for example: Documentation of human rights violations among refugees and displaced may involve taking quantitative samples in order to generalize the results to the whole population in addition to qualitative research to gain a comprehensive of how the violations occurred and the reasons leading to it. Quantitative and qualitative questioning Is likely to be qualitative and quantitative questionings are essential in interviews as shown below: Q: Why did you leave the neighborhood in which you lived? (Qualitative) A: Because of the repeated bombardment (quantitative and qualitative) The systematic pattern for other types of violations might not clear, such as intimidation of the civilian population in the context of a military tactic, but only after a series

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

of interviews that are using qualitative methods of interrogation. At this stage, these violations should be recorded and processed as quantitative data. Research methodology also interact with the environment in which the organization works; for example in the refugee camps, the assigned to conduct interviews due to imposed security restrictions, might be obliged to wait for someone who initiates to approach and talk to them about his experience. In this case, random sampling is difficult, and the documentation team must make sure of the reason why the respondent approached to them to talk, and the potential results of that on the credibility and reliability of the given information. On the other hand, documenting process of some human rights violations, such as sexual assault, for example, is exposed to the deficiency of reporting due to feelings of shame or fear resulting from this experience. In this case, the documentation team must evaluate the possibility of access to the victims and how to reach them. Here highlights, the importance of coordination with all relevant human rights organizations that are able to provide the team with useful information, to identify potential respondents, regardless of the methodology type, adopted by the project. It is necessary to reflect the conclusions of the research transparently, what are the practical limits that objected the application of this methodology. 2 - Protocol design for interviews Interview protocol involves comprehensive guidelines principles that are directing the interviewer. The mentioned protocol, also emphasizes, the respect of basic principles, after adjustment, as much as commensurate with the local context. Moreover, the protocol clarifies the terms of this interview, where the person who conducts the interview, who takes the duty of informing the respondent about them. For example, the interview begins with an introduction describes accurately the following things: A. The goal of the interview, and how to use the resulting information, including the keeping period of such information. B. The definition of the person who conducts the interview (i.e. his name and general description of his work). C. Emphasize clearly of the independence, impartiality and neutrality of the organization that supervises the project and not belonging to any party involved in the conflict. Dates of interviews: the interview protocol, states the necessity of estimated period for each interview by the documentation team. If the team expects that the interview period exceeds one hour, then it would be wise to set aside some time for a short break. Be keen on keeping the spacing between successive interviews, in anticipation of the interviews that take longer time unexpectedly, and the time you need to move from an interview to another or from one region to another. - Questions formulation:

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

The interviewing questions are designed to allow the access to information that is capable of giving a broader context, which is an allegedly occurring human rights violation. The questions are formulated to allow the following: A - Determining the nature and degree of violations: including access to specific details about the perpetrators of the violation. B - Description of the equipment of weapons that were used during the conflict, in order to help documentation teams in racking to these weapons through collected evidence. C - Knowing the possible causes, including structural causes such as laws and cultural practices. D - Understanding the results of the violation or the resulting harms. E - Obtaining quantitative information, such as the number of people who have been affected by the violation, such as the number of males and females, and their numbers according age, etc. F - Understanding the type of justice sought by the respondents of the victims of human rights violations. When arranging the interview questions, always start the interview by asking a an open question that allows the responder to lists the events witnessed in his own way and time he needs when conducting interviews with refugees or internally displaced persons, you can start with asking about the reason for the flight of the respondent from his home, Proceeding of this question, the respondent up automatically to talk about witnessed human rights violations. In general the questions should be open and not indoctrinating or leading questions. Also the most important questions should be asked, at the beginning of the interview. We recommend that less controversial and less sensitive topics should be treated first, and then addressed gradually to those of the most controversial and sensitive topics after showing more comfort, by the respondent . It is also useful to use maps or allow the responder to use drawing, to facilitate the explanation At the end of the interview, it is necessary to set aside some time for the details that the respondent likes to add for his answers, or the questions that he likes to ask the person who conducts the interview, and for the names of additional people who may recommend to interview. The interviewer should be keen to reassure the respondent again that the interview is confidential. - The safety of persons: The personal of responders and documentation team have a priority when deciding the interview with the respondent or not. The security risk assessment should be estimated at all stages of the documentation

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

process, means since the first contact with the respondent until the interviewing, and even in the period after the interview, whenever contacting with the respondent , to follow up the issue. The level of risk on respondent is influenced by group of factors, including: A- The place of responder presence and his identity. B- The available self-protection resources for the responder. C- Threats or attempts of intimidation that the respondent exposed to, and those that he suffered from in the past. D- The prevailing environment security. The level of risk is also different due to the ability of documentation team to provide protection for the responder. It is necessary to take the opinion of the respondent concerning the possible risks when assessing the level of risk. Measures that the documentation team should do are very special to the target security context. As a general rule, it is recommended to adopt of extreme caution. Namely, to make all efforts to mitigate draw attention to individual victims, witnesses and sources of information, and other persons who are cooperating with the documentation team, to the lowest limit As for the members of the documentation teams, the personal protection safety measures include continuous communication with each other and carry a cell phone on the move, and go to interviews within groups of two or more persons. Second: the interview: 1. The place: The personal safety of responder is considered as the first and basic factor in determining the interview place. The interviews should be done, individually wherever possible, in a safe and neutral place, such as schools or social centers where the risk of drawing attention to the respondent or monitored is the least. In the best of cases, the respondent, is allowed to choose the time and place of the interview. 2. Documentation of interview There are several options to record the interview or documented, including the codification of the course of the interview by hand writing, or audio or video cameras recording. Selection of the best style of documentation of a certain project is depending on achieving the balance between many factors, among them the accuracy and effectiveness in keeping the sayings of the effector and the practical side which varies according to the available resources of the existing institute and confidentiality guarantee. that does not make the respondents worry, as far as digital recording, also facilitates

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

using diagrams or maps that illustrate their words. In addition to all of the above, the recording on paper offers a bigger secrecy guarantee of security fears. It might be impossible to write all the information during the interview, but this issue can be solved with forming a documentation team of two persons, where the first one is asking questions while the second person is writing the words. However, participants generally prefer to talk to only one person. Uniforms samples of standardized forms could be used to fill out the information (Forms). Uniform samples are very useful to ensure consistency between the interviews and collection of quantitative information. 3. during the interview: A. The basic methods Persons who have been subjected to human rights violations or displaced refugees are often suffering from severe psychological stress. They might also feel distrust and losing of control. Therefore, the human rights officers have to empathize with these feelings and respect the reality of these people who have been deprived of any resources and they are far from their homes and perhaps from their families. The people who are conducting the interview should also pay attention to their rhetoric and tone of voices during interaction with respondents, as they have to communicate using their eyes during the interview. Respondents may focus on economic reasons that pushed them to escape and lose sight of the reported human rights abuses they exposed to. In all cases, the people who are conducting the interview with respondents are allowed to speak freely about these topics and then try to re-focus on the subject of the interview. In addition to the above, it is necessary to reassure the respondent by reminding, him of the possibility of withdraw from the interview at any time, and that he is not obliged to answer those questions he does not want to answer. On the other hand, the person who conducts the interview should enjoy good judgment, to decide not ask a certain question, or not to pursue questioning, when it is clear for him that this question may cause more pressure on the respondent. He should also show good estimation to the suitable time of ending the interview in order to favor the interest of respondent or his interest. B - Verification of the facts and their chronology It should be noted that respondents may exaggerate or pretend with severe pressure to suggest a certain status, especially if they are trying to justify their decision to flee from their homeland. This does not mean that their story is true, but it contains some elements of exaggeration.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

The responder may also resort to repeating stories he heard or saw in the media without having actually seen the events of these stories. Verification of refugeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sayings is difficult, because it could not visit their homeland to preview the story side that they mention. You can ask them, respectfully, further clarification, where the story events seem inconsistent or contradictory. For example, you can ask specific questions about the distance that was separating between the respondent and the perpetrator or the victim for example, or about the shape of the victims or the perpetrators to get more accurate answers. Try to arrange events in their correct chronological order by asking the same questions in different ways, with this way, you guarantee the accuracy of the information. The person who conducts the interview should try to test the accuracy of the story that told by the respondent and its cohesion without direct exposure to the credibility. C. Recording the physical and psychological symptoms. Persons who conduct the interview may wish to record physical or psychological symptoms that they observe during the interview with the respondent or through an independent medical examination. So it may be, wherever possible, using of a doctor to evaluate these symptoms during the interview. Or may be a person who conducts the interview, to watch the responder carefully during the interview and record any useful details in order to present them later to the doctors for evaluation. If photographs were taken for this purpose, it should be careful not to disclose the identity of the individual in these photos through deleting the distinctive features that expose his identity. Generally, any injury of the responder such as swelling, bruises, cuts, scratches or burns should be recorded. In this case, the people who are conducting the interview should try to determine the location and size, color, and type of injury. It might be useful to refer to injuries in a diagram of the body. The size of the injury can be determined by comparing it with the size of known standard thing. According to these measures, and with the help of a doctor, the person who conducts the interview could know if the recorded symptoms are registered for the respondent consistent with the incident of abuse that allegedly exposed to. Persons who have been subjected to torture could suffer from post-traumatic stress and emotional difficulties or other psychiatric disorder, including poor memory, anxiety, and phobias. If a person who conducts the interview sees that the respondent has difficulty remembering his experiments or describing them, it becomes necessary to depend on other sources of information, such as the respondentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relatives or friends for example, to find out the history of the respondent and understand him. Medical advice is useful in this case also. D - Interview survivors of sexual violence

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Because of the social stigma associated with rape or sexual violence in many communities, respondents may be reluctant who have been exposed to this kind of violence, in particular on to talk about their experience. In this case, an extra effort should be done to create an atmosphere that helps this group of respondents to talk about abuse through interviews; the relationship with them should be strengthen and reassure them about the confidentiality of the interview. When a person who conducts the interview is able to understand the basic facts of the incident of abuse or violence (what happened, when, where and who was responsible, and whether there are witnesses). In this context, women in the documentation team interview female responders. There are some guidelines for people who are conducting the interview: 1. Interview only one woman in each family. 2) Questions about the issue of sexual violence should not be asked for a man who belongs to a family or a group that includes women who have been already questioned about this topic. 3. Preparation of some different questions about less sensitive subjects to be used if others enter, including children, to the interview place during its conducting. E - Conducting interviews with people who have been subjected to psychological trauma: When people remember and talk about painful incidents that they have been subjected to, they give an impression of lack of credibility because they face difficulty in restoring parts of their experiments, or details and time or places confusing, so they add these details as they come to their minds, or as their trust in the person who conducts the interview increased; for this reason they should be: - Give an opportunity to clarify their answers, particularly with regard to the basic detail such as dates, times and names. - On the other hand, the people who are conducting the interview are keen on not to express their doubt or lack of confidence or arrogance. If the responder disturbed or became agitated during the interview, then try to change the topic and return back to it later. Do not press on the respondent, but respect and sympathize with his experiments. Be patient and allow the respondent to express himself. Ask for a break if you notice that the respondent became tired or heavily influenced. The people who are conducting the interview should be ready for what would happen as a result of discussing the past shocks such as torture, for example, that sometimes lead to the restoration of shock case. The case of shock could be restored, when the person tests a state of shock he experienced in the past again. This result cannot be avoided, in all cases; however the risk could be reduced by taking the following steps:

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

1. Adjusting the speed of the interview to avoid respondentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fatigue. 2. Recognition and acknowledgment in the difficulty of remembering traumatic events a respectful manner and without arrogance. 3. Listening to what the responder says, and encourage him to talk about his experiments. 4. Avoid rating responderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior, or putting assumptions or judgments about his behavior. It should be noted here that the attitudes of the person who conducts the interview, does not appear through his words only, but through his body language as well. 5. Training the people who are conducting the interview, to control their own emotions towards the respondents experiment, or clarification, when necessary during the interview, that the incident itself, but not the respondent, which makes them feel uncomfortable. 6. Inadmissibility hugging or touching the responder. Despite of the necessity of empathy with the responder, the people who are conducting the interview should pay the attention to their duties that do not include advising the respondents or curing them. 4. after the interview: After the interview, the person who conducts the interview should write a complete report as soon as possible, it is preferable to write it within twenty-four hours after the interview. In order to prepare the report, it is necessary to return back to the issues list that have been basically prepared in order to link the obtained information during the interview with these issues. When assessing the accuracy of the information obtained during the interview, the person who conducted the interview should give his opinion concerning witness behavior and his credibility in general, taking into consideration, the nature of the issues that are discussed, and cultural differences may cause difficulty in communicating relative to the responder. In addition to that, trauma and culture may prevent the respondent from being firm and clear in his words. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the impact of the respondentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior on his credibility. If the person who conducts the interview does not believe the statements of the respondent, he must explain why, even if lack of conviction with the credibility of respondents is uncommon. It might be necessary in some cases, to reject a part of the interview or all of it. But before this happens, every interview process should be exposed for an internal review based on the notes of documentation team to try to reach for a consensus within the team about whether it should renounce any part of the interview.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Chapter Three:

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

The collection of evidence In the course of conducting interviews, documentation team may find that he could gather evidence either in the interview site or through cooperation with appropriate institutions, such as prisons or hospitals, which help to prove the occurrence of human rights violations. The most valuable evidence is the initial or the direct evidence, which, if they were true, would confirm the event or incident in question. The statements of witnesses and victims, which were registered in the interview, are considered as a form of direct evidence. While the indirect evidence, which tends to confirm the occurrence of the event, they are considered as an important kind of evidence. The indirect evidence of recorded statements during the interviews, such as medical records that confirm the statements associated with the exposure of a person to mistreatment. Besides, indirect evidence may lead to the conclusion that confirms the event, such as, bullet casings or fragments of a bomb that found near the victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home. And include other forms of indirect evidence, courts minutes, and records of police or prisons, and photographs, as well as reports that published by media or other organizations, which may be very useful also. In all cases, the credibility of secondary sources and impartiality are subjected to accurate assess during collection of documents. Ask for the original document, wherever possible, for example. When minutes of the court are requested, it is advisable to obtain the original documents, instead of the copies. If the documentation team plans to visit a particular site to collect evidence, using specialist experts, if special experience is required to assess the site, forensic science, for example. In general, the documentation team is to be keen not to disturb the sites that might be a source of evidence, and not to draw unwanted attention to it, but working on recording his observations, including charts or maps carefully and objectively. Audio and visual tools: Audio and video recording equipment or cameras could be used to document evidence of human rights violations that do not involve testimonies of people. Although these tools offer some advantages, immediate effect of sounds and relative fast images, speed and the relative ease in the distribution of digital information. This kind of documentation remains fraught with great dangers in terms of confidentiality and security; thus using visual and sound recordings exclusively when respecting the principle of do not cause any damage, becomes possible.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

The usage of audio and visual means when collecting testimonies of people. The usage of this recording, for collecting indirect evidence, is limited. It is not allowed filming of individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photography or video, it could lead for dissatisfaction. In the rare cases in which a certificate is recorded by one of the mentioned tools, all possible efforts should be done to hide the identity of the witness and the designation of the record that does not disclose his name. If the documentation team was sure of the possibility of imaging without compromising the security of respondents for a risk, the following steps should be made: 1. Use the appropriate devices: for example, a small light reflector, camera that does not give sounds when used. 2. Use the camera without having to look through the lens. 3. Pick up more than one image for each individual. Chapter four: Storage of evidence First: the evidence that are involving testimonies of people: Storing the evidence in a safe and secure manner is a basic guarantee of the effectiveness of the human rights documentation. Second: the physical evidence and the responsibility series. The physical evidence collected by the documentation Team, documents or things, must be stored and classified in a way that maintains the clarity of â&#x20AC;&#x153;responsibility seriesâ&#x20AC;? as its own. The responsibility series is a metaphor of a record attesting to the names of all persons who had transmitted possession the directory. The court may rely on this record to make sure that the directory has not been tampered with in an improper manner and not been modified or vandalism since withdrawn from the scene of the crime; and Maintaining the limited responsibility series is considered as liability and an effective way to protect the confidentiality of the evidence. The responsibility series record, states clearly the following information: 1. Description of the purpose of guide. 2. The identity of the person who withdraw the directory. 3. In what date and time when the directory was withdrawn. 4. The location where the directory was found. At every time the guide moves to the custody of a new person, the responsibility series record updating is done.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Section nine

Types of violations

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Types of violations: First: torture by a governmental entity: What must be proved? 1- Causing of severe mental or physical pain or suffering. 2- It has been approved by the state authorities. 3- The torture was occurred out for a specific purpose such as obtaining information, punishment, intimidation and humiliation. 4- Torture includes rape and other forms of sexual violence. Torture is considered as a violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Second: Torture by a non-governmental entity: What must be proved? 1. Causing of severe mental or physical pain or suffering. 2. The victim did not participate in hostile operations. 3. The torture was occurred for a specific purpose such as obtaining information, punishment, intimidation and humiliation. 4- The torture includes rape and other forms of sexual violence. Torture is a violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Third: The ill-treatment amounting to torture (and brutalized - not humanitarian - degrading): What must be proved? 1. Deliberate exposure for severe mental or physical pain or suffering. 2. The approval of state authorities or complying. This is considered as a violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Fourth: extrajudicial executions, summary or arbitrary executions: What must be proved? 1. Deprivation of life without a fair trial. 2. As a result of an order issued by the state or in collusion with the state. This is considered as a violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Fifth: arbitrary arrest or outside the scope of the law: What must be proved? 1. The consent of the State on detention in a prison or in another detention center 2. No reason was given, for arresting the detainee, or the detainee was not allowed to appear in front a judge 3. Detainee was not tried within a reasonable period of time.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

This is a violation of international law of human rights. Sixth: The Taking of Hostages: What must be proved? 1. Seizure or detention of a person in the context of armed conflict 2. Threat with killing or injure the hostages, or continue holding them to force a third party to do a certain action or abstain from doing it. This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Seventh: the forced recruitment of children: What must be proved? â&#x20AC;˘The recruitment of children under the age of fifteen, as soldiers or fighters, by government forces or by the opposition. This is considered as a violation of international law of human rights. Eighth: the imposition of restrictions on the freedom of opinion, thought, and religion: What must be proved? Bring an act or omission it in order to prevent a person from freedom to hold or exercise of any religion or belief of his choice. This is considered as a violation of international law of human rights. Ninth: looting and robbery What must be proved? Theft of the armed forces for private properties in the context of an armed conflict This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Tenth: forced displacement of the civilian population: What must be proved? The transfer of a group of people were forcibly expelled them, without legal basis, from the region that they were living in, lawfully, except in cases of where the evacuation of civilians is done for urgent military or security reasons , as long as there is a justification for the evacuation. This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Eleventh: spread terror among civilians: What must be proved? 1. Indiscriminate shelling on a large scale. 2. Assault, rape, ill-treatment or torture against women and children. 3. The mass murder. This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Twelve: the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons (cluster bombs - incendiary weapons) What must be proved? 1. Using of such weapons, it cannot be targeting a specific military objective away from

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

the other. 2. Its effects cannot be limited to or control. This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law Thirteen: Use of Chemical Weapons In general, chemical weapons are identified as munitions or devices releasing toxic chemicals with the aim of causing harm or murder. These weapons are deployable in gaseous or liquid or solid forms, such as sarin and mustard gas and VX agent This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Fourteen: use of human shields What must be proved? â&#x20AC;˘Getting the advantage of the presence of civilians or their motion to deter military operations against certain points or areas. This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. Fifteen: military attacks that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians What must be proved? 1. Military attacks against the civilian population and civilian individuals or civilian-populated areas such as mosques, churches and hospitals, or schools. 2 - Depriving certain categories of the population of the right to intentionally access to food, water and medicine, or other basic services. 3. A military attack regardless of minimize the damage to the civilian population This is considered as a violation of international humanitarian law. References of directory: 1. Documenting human rights violations guide issued by the Syrian Organization for justice and accountability. 2. Documenting violations guide issued by Palestinian right organization of human rights. 3. The High Commission of the United Nations human rights guide (UNHCR guide) 4. Specialists directory of monitoring and documenting human rights and defending them issued supporters organization of human rights.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

ِAnnexe

universal decleration of human rights PREAMBLE Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. Article 1: •All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2: •Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3: •Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4: •No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5: •No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 6: •Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7: •All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

incitement to such discrimination. Article 8: •Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9: •No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10: •Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11: •(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. •(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. Article 12: •No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13: •(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. •(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 14: •(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. •(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 15: •(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. •(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Article 16: •(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. •(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. •(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. Article 17: •(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. •(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Article 18: •Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19: •Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20:

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Article 20: •(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. •(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21: •(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. •(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. •(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections, which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 22: •Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23: •(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. •(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. •(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. •(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24: •Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Article 25: •(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. •(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. Article 26: •(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. •(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. •(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Article 27: •(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. •(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Article 28:

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Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide

Article 28: •Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. Article 29: •(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. •(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. •(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 30: •Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Alkawakibi Human Rights Organization

Human Rights Violations Documentation Guide