opportunities to conduct broader studies in the future. For instance, an organization that starts to monitor treatments and conditions of inmates in one region can soon come to be recognized as an expert in the field.
Step 2. Do a preliminary diagnosis of the situation and relevant legal frameworks Collecting preliminary data on a particular issue area, conducting informal and unstructured interviews and consulting previous research form the basis of a preliminary diagnosis of the situation. Even if a particular aspect of collective reality has never been monitored before in a country, there are undoubtedly other published sources of information that deal with the topic elsewhere. A CSO will benefit from consulting these sources and other existing literature on the issue and connecting themes. Secondly, monitoring projects must engage with relevant national laws, international treaties and widely agreed-upon best practices regulating the issue under investigation. These rules and standards will inform the observation of events on the ground.
Step 3. Choose appropriate research methods and information-gathering techniques Having established the relevant legal frameworks and best practices that govern a particular issue area, the monitoring CSO needs to consider whether, in practice, relevant laws are followed, policies implemented and norms respected. To do so, one must choose the research tool and techniques most appropriate to the object being studied. Box 7.5 provides an overview of the most widely used techniques to gather information on the ground.
Box 7.5 Verifying gathered information: three principles of assessment The credibility of a CSO monitoring report, and its capacity to influence social change, is largely determined by its transparency and accuracy. Consequently, one of the major steps in any monitoring report must be to verify the documentation gathered in interviews, surveys, data collection and other techniques of information gathering. Three major principles, herein adapted from the Manual on Human Rights Monitoring published by the Norwegian Institute on Human Rights, set practical guidelines for CSOs involved in monitoring activities.
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