To overcome these challenges, investigation teams should conduct a thorough mapping exercise on potential sources that can provide gender-specific information. It is often critical to rely on intermediaries who could help to identify those persons, including victims, or organizations that may be good sources of information. Intermediaries can also play a critical role in reaching out to victims and making the first contact with them to assess their disposition to being interviewed. Investigation teams should be proactive in reaching out to different types of sources and intermediaries, making sure the selection of sources and intermediaries is conducive to gathering information on women’s human rights and gender issues. It is important to remember, when identifying sources, not to rely too heavily on entities or service providers that target only one segment of the population. For example, psychosocial services that only target women and girls may not be good sources of information on trauma suffered by men or boys. context and take the necessary measures to maximize their participation by mitigating any obstacles. This may include organizing interviews according to special schedules that facilitate the participation of women and girls, arranging alternative childcare, considering the possibility of conducting interviews remotely through secure communication methods, or receiving written testimonies, when relevant. Outreach initiatives should also be gender sensitive to ensure that women and girls are made aware of them, in a timely manner, and of the possibility of their attending and that facilities will be provided to enable them to give their testimony. Experience has revealed that, in communities with a strong patriarchal culture, women and girls often perceive themselves and their experiences as secondary to others’. As a result, their testimonies often focus primarily on the experience of their male relatives and/ or children. Human Rights Officers conducting interviews should be aware of this and must ensure that follow-up questions focus on the women’s experience. Dedicating “special days” for women may also contribute to facilitating their participation and sharing information on their own experience. In some contexts, and for a variety of reasons (e.g. security, remoteness, trauma or stigma), it may be very difficult or impossible, or unadvisable, to interview certain victims or witnesses. While the documentation of human rights violations will often require interviews with surviving victims and direct witnesses, care should be taken to contemplate and reach out to other available sources of information. This could also contribute to preventing the conduct of unnecessary interviews, which is particularly important when dealing with traumatized persons. Some CoIs/FFMs have organized public hearings to increase the outreach and visibility of their work, supplement information that requires further verification, identify new sources of information and/or bring forward or prioritize certain topics, such as violations of women’s rights. Gender Advisers can play an essential role in preparing victims and witnesses to speak in public hearings and in sensitizing Commissioners, Experts and Human Rights Officers on how best to ask questions on gender issues. Consideration should be given to whether public hearings could expose victims to further stigmatization or violence. Women and girls are often disproportionately assigned domestic tasks, including cooking, gathering water and wood and caring for children and elders, which often restrains their availability to participate in meetings and their freedom of movement. Additional obstacles may prevent women and girls’ participation and their ability or disposition to meet and be interviewed. Investigation teams should be aware of the situation of women and girls in the particular Yet another challenge is that patriarchal and gender-based discrimination might be so ingrained that even the investigators themselves fail to recognize human rights concerns. For 27