Integrating the Issue of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Detention Monitoring Above all else, monitoring bodies should ensure they apply the “do no harm principle” when interviewing detainees/prisoners. In order to protect against the possibility of further abuse, and to get the best possible overview of the nature and extent of abuse, it may be useful to aim for a randomized sample of participants that reflects the composition of the overall prison population. In this way monitors can include those most at risk of abuse of SGBV, including juveniles, foreign nationals and LGBTI individuals, or the potential perpetrators of abuse, without drawing unwanted attention to their situation. Thus, where possible, the groups of participants should: • Be gender balanced; • Include a representative sample of both pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners; • Include at-risk groups among a larger group of prisoners, to reduce the risk they will be identified and targeted; • Include detainees/prisoners who have made reports of sexual abuse; • Represent the different age groups within the prison population; • Include detainees/prisoners from different wings/blocks/cells/dormitories; • Include those detainees/prisoners undergoing any form of punishment; • Include those who have physical/mental health conditions; • Represent the different security levels in the detention facility and different sentence lengths of convicted prisoners; and • Include some detainees/prisoners who have recently arrived in the facility. When determining the means of information gathering, monitors should consider the most appropriate method for monitoring SGBV, as this is very sensitive. Crucially, they need to gain the confidence of detainees/prisoners. Closed group discussions with detainees/prisoners might be useful forums for discussing some forms of SGBV, including staff bullying and humiliation, and for gaining a sense of the prevailing culture in the facility. However, they may be not be appropriate for discussing violence among prisoners and could pose significant risks for the participants. Similarly, casual conversations with detainees/prisoners are unlikely to reveal significant information about SGBV, but might provide important indications of staff and detainee/prisoner attitudes towards the issue, and could help to determine the most pressing issues in the facility and to identify those groups and individuals who are most at risk. When monitoring SGBV in places of deprivation of liberty, one-to-one private and confidential interviews generally provide a much safer environment and allow more time for 27