Information gathered during investigations can be a rich source of material for screening individuals or units of security forces. It can also contribute to the development of accountability mechanisms that are established as part of mitigation measures following assessments of the risk that recipients of United Nations support may commit grave violations in the future. 6. Vetting Information on alleged perpetrators can also contribute to institutional reform efforts in countries in transition. Vetting processes operate to exclude from public institutions persons who lack integrity – evidenced by their lack of “adherence to international standards of human rights and professional conduct ...”33 Where due process concerns are adequately addressed, information from United Nations-mandated investigative bodies may be particularly helpful in depoliticizing vetting efforts, as the information will have been gathered according to a sound methodology and from a source outside national processes. In Timor-Leste, CoI information played a role in vetting police officers during the post-conflict transition.34 7. Screening of United Nations personnel The United Nations Secretariat screens its personnel to ensure that it neither selects nor deploys for service in the Secretariat any individual who has “committed, or is alleged to have committed, criminal offences and/or violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law”.35 The policy applies to all categories of personnel under consideration for recruitment or already under contract with the United Nations,36 where there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the individual has been involved, either directly by act or by omission (as a superior or commander)” in the commission of a human rights or international humanitarian law violation that precludes the individual from meeting the requisite highest standards of competence, efficiency and integrity.37 At any given time, the United Nations has under its command approximately 85,000 military personnel OHCHR Rule of Law Tools in Post-Conflict States, Vetting: An Operational Framework (2006), p. 4. The term “vetting” is most commonly associated with formal, sometimes public, national processes by which governments investigate former or current members of security forces and other State institutions to evaluate their individual human rights records prior to their employment or re-employment as domestic civil servants, often in the context of structural reform processes. 34 United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste, Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section, “Report on human rights developments in Timor-Leste, August 2006–August 2007”, pp. 15-16 and 25. 35 Human Rights Screening of United Nations Personnel, United Nations Policy, 11 December 2012, para. 1.1. 36 Ibid. para. 2.1: “[T]his policy applies to the selection, appointment, recruitment, contracting and deployment of all types of United Nations personnel in the Secretariat – staff and non-staff, uniformed and civilian – including those in peacekeeping missions, and special political missions.” 37 Ibid., para. 4.3. 33 WHETHER TO IDENTIFY INDIVIDUALS 23