60 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners For project-model programmes involving non-OSCE staff, contracts should include, at a minimum: the name of the project and the contract period; the timing, terms and conditions of payment; the obligation on the part of the monitor to adhere to all programme requirements and guidelines, including the code of conduct; and the status of monitors as independent contractors, rather than employees of the organization. It is not necessary for the contract to include all programme documentation, such as guidelines and manuals. Instead, it may specify that the monitor will receive copies of all applicable materials and instructions, and accepts all duties and responsibilities. 7.3.4 Nationality of monitors Initially, OSCE trial monitoring was conducted largely by international monitors. Today, however, national monitors conduct the vast majority of OSCE systemic and thematic trial monitoring.73 Experience has shown that both international and national monitors can achieve excellent results as monitors (or legal analysts). Employing national monitors is also a means of building local capacity. Staff costs for national monitors are generally lower, and national monitors require less logistical support, such as interpretation. Despite these considerations, the managers must still assess in each context whether international or national monitors should be engaged. Experience has shown three situations where international monitors might be preferable: • Where trial monitoring serves as a confidence-building measure, such as in contexts of postconflict ethnic tensions or other such polarized situations, national monitors may be perceived as biased. In these situations, the fact that a monitor is international can greatly enhance the appearance of impartiality. • When trial monitoring involves cases where security concerns are prominent, an international monitor is less exposed to threats or other pressures. Specifically, war crimes cases, organized crime and corruption prosecutions and other high-profile proceedings may put extreme pressure on all judicial actors, as well as on monitors. Attendance at the proceedings, particular if this makes them privy to closed hearings and confidential information, might subject national monitors to outside pressures. In such instances, international monitors affiliated with an international organization might be freer to report, engage and even criticize actors without the same concern for personal or family safety. • When the subject matter of monitoring requires more elaborate legal knowledge of international standards or of monitoring techniques, international monitors with appropriate backgrounds can successfully jump start monitoring programmes, with a view to later handing work over to national monitors. In several missions, international monitors have worked side-by-side with national monitors, as in the programmes run by the OSCE Office in Zagreb, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, or the Rule 11bis Project of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. These mixed teams have built local capacity and have yielded positive results through complementary strengths. 73  See Annex VII for information regarding the trial monitoring programmes of OSCE field operations.