Chapter 5 — Establishment of an Information-Management System • the number of cases in which no defence counsel was appointed for an indigent defendant; • the number of cases in which no instructions were given to the defendant on the right to counsel and no counsel was obtained; and/or • the number of cases in which defendants without counsel were convicted. In addition to generating statistics, a database is able to produce issue lists or issue reports with narrative information or analysis. For each example above, a database might provide an “issue report” compiling from various case-monitoring reports the monitors’ conclusions on whether the absence of defence counsel constituted a violation of domestic law and/or international fair trial standards. An issue report generated by a database on cases where no defence counsel was present during a specific time period might look as follows: Issue Report: No Defence Counsel Present [1/1/08 – 5/5/08] Defence Counsel Hearing Date Case Name Right to Defence Counsel NO 1/3/08 Pusara The accused advised the court that he wanted a lawyer, but could not afford one. The preliminary hearing judge did not respond and did not enter the request into the record. Given the serious … NO 1/3/08 Rodic The judge failed to advise the accused of the right to a lawyer and warned the accused against discussing his financial circumstances during the hearing. This constituted a violation of the right … NO 1/3/08 Palameta At the hearing, the accused appeared emotionally distressed and it was established that he had a history of mental illness. Although it appeared that in the interests of justice … NO 1/4/08 Sando After being instructed of his rights, the defendant indicated that he did not need a lawyer and wished to represent himself at the trial. Since it … Another advantage of electronic databases is that they enable monitoring staff based in different locations to enter their monitoring data, information, analysis and findings directly into one centralized system. Entering information into the database can be labour intensive. Therefore, programme managers and database users should regularly share views on how database inputs can be optimized to allow monitors to manage their reporting time effectively. It is also important to establish a good dialogue between the technical developers of the system and the staff of the monitoring programme. Staff need to be consulted at all stages of the development of an electronic database. While electronic databases are important tools, they do have limitations. If not constructed appropriately, they may not be able to generate useful data. They may also be unable to reflect more elaborate problems that arise in the course of operations and which were not thought of initially without being modified or expanded. Moreover, despite their powerful information-management capacity, databases can provide reliable output only where legal analysts continue to be engaged in all facets of reporting. Legal analysts must still review case reports and analyze issues. It must be remembered that a database is only an organizational tool. It is still the monitor and legal analyst who need to ensure that issues of concern are entered properly into the database, and it is still the legal analysts who must oversee the quality of monitoring information as to its accuracy and pertinence. They must also provide the legal and analytical framework for synthesizing information. 47