Module 2: Human Rights Monitoring Definition and Principles

While investigating human rights violations, you should keep in mind and respect several basic principles that are essential for effective human rights monitoring. These principles ensure that your work is accurate, impartial and that your actions do not cause harm. Learn how to apply them in this module.

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Exercise 1: Key principles of monitoring

Look through the key principles of monitoring listed below once again. Try to formulate how you understand each of those principles. Record your thoughts in any way – on a voice recorder, make a short summary or a video. And after that, please open the handout and compare your ideas to those that are presented in our material. How do they differ?

Key Principles of Monitoring:

• ● Know the standards
• ● Emphasize State responsibility
• ● Do not cause harm to your sources and yourself
• ● Seek informed consent
• ● Maintain confidentiality and privacy of an interview
• ● Be precise and thorough
• ● Maintain credibility and reliability
• ● Be consistent
• ● Maintain Integrity and professionalism
• ● Be transparent
• ● Pay attention to sensitivity (respect to diversity, gender perspective)
• ● Be impartial and objective

Exercise 2: Human rights standards

Taking into consideration the following chart, please reflect on a specific right you want to protect and answer the following questions before starting your human rights investigation:

To help you navigate through this process, please find below an example:

What right will we study?

• ● The right of detained women to non-discrimination based on gender.

What standards regulate the obligations of the State to realize this right?

What standards regulate non-discrimination of women?

• ● Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
• ● Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
• ● Paragraph 15 of the General comment No. 28 (2000) on the equality of rights between men and women
• ● Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the sixth periodic report of Yemen (CEDAW/C/YEM/CO/6).
• ● Paragraph 44 of the Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (E/CN.4/2000/68/Add.3)
• ● National Law

What change should be achieved as a result of our monitoring?

• ● The State ensures the practical implementation of this standard in all temporary detention facilities (city, town, district, country)
• ● Women’s detention facilities are run by responsible female officers, male staff are allowed into the women’s detention facility only when accompanied by female staff, and women in detention should be cared for and supervised only by female staff.

Before moving on to the quiz, please check out the additional resources provided under the “Materials” tab above.