MONITORING METHODOLOGY Focus Groups In general, due to their particular vulnerability, individual interviews are preferable to focus groups with children deprived of their liberty. However, different reasons may lead the monitoring team to gather children in a group to be interviewed: ʺʺ some children prefer to be part of a group to speak in order not to be identified and to be less worried about potential reprisals; ʺʺ time available can be optimised when meeting children in groups; ʺʺ no children is volunteer to be interviewed individually; ʺʺ etc. In these circumstances, the questions should include the same topics as the individual interviews but they need to be adapted to allow discussion in a group and to avoid any delicate question that would likely to make a child uncomfortable in front of his/her peers. For example, questions related to torture and ill-treatment should be avoided in group because it is entirely unethical and dangerous. As few adults as possible (as for individual interviews) should be present in order to allow children to talk more freely. It is also important to guarantee that no disclosure of the information discussed in groups will occur in order to avoid any risk of harm or reprisal to the child(ren) concerned. During discussions, the interviewer should pay attention to involving all children to an equal extent in the narration, without exerting pressure on children who may not feel comfortable to speak about a certain issue in the presence of his/ her peers. Be aware of possible group pressures and informal hierarchies between children, bullying, snitches, etc. The information gathered through focus groups may corroborate the data collected in individual interviews; identify common problems or concerns, identify who will be of interest to have a one-to-one interview with, for example. When contradictory or questionable information emerges, it will be necessary to cross-check this during individual interviews, through monitors’ observation and/or with other sources. 79 4