Chapter 8 — Conduct and Capacity-Building of Trial-Monitoring Staff daily activities, while other programmes have deemed weekly or monthly meetings to be sufficient. Ad hoc, thematic meetings have also supplemented regular meetings. 8.5.3 Internal report sharing Trial-monitoring programmes, like other types of field activities with an information-gathering component, are structured hierarchically to provide information to a centralized point. As such, programmes must seek to compensate for the natural tendency of information only to flow upward. The direct sharing of case reports among monitors may help counter this tendency. Report sharing serves as a method to improve monitoring and reporting skills through the exposure of monitors to other practices. A number of OSCE programmes facilitate the sharing and review of case reports among monitors. As an example, the trial-monitoring programme of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has encouraged the sharing of reports among monitors on an informal basis through e-mail. Reports are also available in a computer database accessible to all monitors, subject to the protection of confidential information, which is not accessible. In whatever manner reports are shared, the process allows monitors to compare their monitoring and reporting to the work of other monitors. It allows insight into the issues identified by colleagues and can enhance their own reporting. Sharing reports can thus be an inexpensive and efficient way to facilitate improved quality and consistency in reporting. 8.5.4 Monitor pairing Assigning monitors to work in pairs has been found to be an effective way to support inexperienced monitors, including national monitors and NGO members in project models. Pairing provides additional support in the case of external pressure, especially where there is institutional resistance to monitoring in the early stages of a programme. In addition, pairing allows for a sharing of monitoring responsibilities, including observation of cases and report writing. In the early stages, joint responsibilities may also result in more thorough monitoring and a fuller consideration of issues. Moreover, it can be useful to pair monitors of different genders or backgrounds, to bring more than one perspective to the task. As monitors achieve the necessary level of experience and skill, the benefits of pairing may be outweighed by the costs of duplicating efforts at the expense of wider monitoring coverage. Thus, the duration of monitor pairing can vary from a few days to several months. 8.5.5 Monitor rotation In many large-scale programmes, monitors are assigned to a particular court or region. There are many advantages to having a monitor become familiar with a specific court. It can promote increased knowledge of local practices and enhanced working relationships with court officials that permit access and benefit advocacy. Especially in rural areas or smaller courts, however, such an assignment may result in monitoring a limited spectrum of cases or repeated appearances before the same judges. Over a period of time, this can result in underexposure to other cases or issues, or too close a relationship developing between the monitor and local legal actors. To allow for broader monitoring experiences that will better ensure continued monitor independence and development, programme managers may consider rotating monitors among different regions and courts. Managers may further require that monitors do not always access the same courts, but observe all courts within an area of responsibility. 8.5.6 Structures for supporting the trial monitors’ well-being Often, trial monitors will be required to listen to accounts of traumatic experiences, review evidentiary material that depicts the scene of a crime, or monitor cases involving dangerous individuals 73