MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR NGOS 51 Viewed schematically, the monitoring process should be as follows: ❶ The NGO determines, as exhaustively as possible, the state of affairs as regards the conditions of detention—i.e., the practice—by summarising: ■ ■ ■ the point of view of the authorities, the staff, and the different professionals taking care of the persons deprived of their liberty; the point of view of the persons deprived of their liberty; what the members of the NGO have observed in the places of detention. ❷ The NGO examines whether the conditions of detention are in conformity with the relevant national and international standards; Depending on the NGO’s working methods vis-à-vis the authorities and the skills it has available, the monitoring process can be more or less thorough: ❶ The NGO can limit itself to noting whether the aspects examined are in conformity with the standards: i.e., what actually is compared with what should be. ❷ On the basis of this, it can then try to explain, at least in part, the causes of any deviations from the standards. These are generally due to a combination of factors, e.g.: ■ National legislation does not correspond to international standards;