Chapter 11 — Internal Reporting Systems In open systems, monitors are usually provided with a checklist of issues to be monitored, to guide them in making their observations and analysis.142 These checklists are often comprised of questions regarding the application of specific laws or fair trial standards, organized by stage of proceeding for ease of reference. These questions are not intended to be answered directly, but to serve as a reference to help alert the monitor to issues or problems that might arise during the observation of hearings or the review of files. In the above example, the monitor’s legal analysis would be provided in the relevant part of Section II or III. To easily distinguish new additions from older entries in a tracking memo, monitors may highlight the added parts. 11.3.2 Closed (or questionnaire) reporting systems A closed or questionnaire reporting system requires monitors to answer a set of specific standardized questions in relation to the case being monitored.143 The system is closed in the sense that the reporting form is highly structured and provides little discretion for the monitor on the types of issues reported in each case. The questionnaires allow for findings to be more easily compiled and quantified. Example: A section of a questionnaire employed by the ODIHR trial monitoring programme in Kazakhstan relating to the presumption of innocence and the right not to be compelled to testify or confess guilt: “… 24. Was the defendant handcuffed during the hearing? 25. Was the defendant held behind bars (a cage in the courtroom where the defendant is often held during the trial)? 26. Where was the bailiff during the hearing? 27. Was the defendant’s right not to testify against himself explained? Did the defendant exercise this right? 28. Was it explained to the defendant that he is not bound by a confession made during the pre-trial stages? 29. Did the prosecutor or other party put pressure on the defendant during the examination? 30. Did the judge pressure the defendant to confess guilt? If yes, how? ….” As section from the questionnaire above illustrates, closed reporting systems tend to provide detailed questions to record a monitor’s observations of specific conditions or practices. Compiled later, such information can provide both a statistical overview of specific practices in relation to local procedural codes and an objective indicator of broader standards being monitored. Questionnaires allow for a large number of specific practices to be documented in a systematic fashion that can be easily compiled and compared.144 A closed system is particularly useful when a programme’s focus is on specific issues that must be documented systematically, or when quantification is desired. It should be noted that some questionnaires do not ask the monitor to draw an overall legal conclusion. For instance, “Was the presumption of innocence violated?” is not asked per se in the above example. Instead, questionnaires often rely on specific objective indicators that can shed light on practices that affect compliance with local procedural codes and international standards. Other questionnaires, however, may seek legal assessments from monitors. When questionnaires are utilized, they normally cover a wide range of issues, sometimes requiring monitors to respond to more than 100 questions for each monitored case. As a result, even if 142  See Annex II.A. and Annex II.B. for samples of questions and issues that could be included in checklists for open reporting systems. 143  Annex II.C. provides an example of questionnaire used in a closed reporting system. 144  Also see Chapter 11.4.3, “Hearing-based monitoring”. 95