136 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners Thematic monitoring may also cover points or issues outside the courtroom that are relevant to the theme or type of case being monitored. For example, in monitoring justice issues concerning vulnerable individuals, a thematic programme may look into the activities of other agencies that assist individuals in such proceedings, such as the role of social welfare centres in proceedings involving juveniles or that of experts responsible for establishing the mental state of vulnerable persons. In thematic monitoring of domestic violence or hate crimes cases, monitors may examine whether the police have complied with established standards. Programmes have also sought to gather information or gain first-hand experience of whether institutions that host mentally ill or juvenile offenders meet international standards. In many contexts, thematic monitoring requires a closer look into the merits of cases, such as in war crimes proceedings, in order to assess procedural guarantees. Doing so can allow a more thorough evaluation of the independence and impartiality of judicial actors, as well as a better understanding of the selection of cases for trial or sentencing practices. For instance, the Mission to Croatia’s main impetus to monitor war crimes proceedings was the concern that the Croatian judicial authorities were biased in the selection of cases for investigation and trial, targeting ethnic Serbs, as opposed to ethnic Croats.197 15.4 Outputs of thematic trial monitoring The specialized nature of the themes monitored often results in different outputs from those of systemic trial monitoring. While reporting remains a principal output, thematic programmes are often more proactively engaged in advocacy activities, since they are focused on particular problems or issues rather than broad trends in reform. For example, programmes monitoring war crimes trials have not only reported publicly on the progress of cases, but have also focused on capacity-building, strengthening co-operation with neighbouring countries, outreach efforts and witness-support schemes. They have also encouraged and provided advice and technical assistance to the authorities on the adoption and implementation of strategies to address the prosecution of war crimes. Since thematic programmes have not always had the specialized in-house expertise required to achieve all of their objectives, they have also turned to external experts for this purpose. Thematic programmes have also been involved in other types of advocacy activities, including supporting discussions among legal professionals, co-operating with training centres and contributing to legislative amendments necessary to ensure that the shortcomings identified through monitoring are addressed. The advocacy activities carried out by thematic programmes need to be tailored to the scale and complexity of the thematic area being covered, as well as to the resources of the programme. For instance, some advocacy activities on organized crime, terrorism or war crimes cases might be better suited to regional initiatives, which may be more sustainable than domestic ones. In subject areas where public perceptions matter greatly, as in war crimes, terrorism and organized crime proceedings, commissioning public opinion surveys may provide the information needed for further outreach and advocacy activities.198 197  For a discussion of monitoring the merits of cases see Chapter 11.4.2, “Simplifying the reporting of facts” particularly the point titled “Analysis of impartiality and fairness through a comparative or statistical approach”, as well as Chapter 20.2, “Identification of issues and analysis in ad hoc monitoring”. 198  See as an example the Survey on “Views on war crimes, the ICTY, and the national war crimes judiciary”, April 2009, by Strategic Marketing Research and OSCE.