nothing or even deny any sexual assault. It is often only on the second or even third visit, if the contact made has been empathic and sensitive to the person’s culture and personality, that more of the story will come out; (viii) Physical injuries sustained in the course of the torture; (ix) A description of weapons or other physical objects used; (x) The identity of witnesses to the events involving torture. The investigator must use care in protecting the safety of witnesses and should consider encrypting the identities of witnesses or keeping these names separate from the substantive interview notes. edgeable about torture issues (see chapters IV, sect. I, and VI, sect. C.2). (f) Information to be obtained from the person alleged to have been tortured 99. The investigator should attempt to obtain as much of the following information as possible through the testimony of the alleged victim (see chapter IV, sect. E): (i) The circumstances leading up to the torture, including arrest or abduction and detention; (ii) Approximate dates and times of the torture, including when the last instance of torture occurred. Establishing this information may not be easy, as there may be several places and perpetrators (or groups of perpetrators) involved. Separate stories may have to be recorded about the different places. Expect chronologies to be inaccurate and sometimes even confusing; notions of time are often hard to focus on for someone who has been tortured. Separate stories about different places may be useful when trying to get a global picture of the situation. Survivors will often not know exactly to where they were taken, having been blindfolded or semi-conscious. By putting together converging testimonies, it may be possible to “map out” specific places, methods and even perpetrators; (iii) A detailed description of the persons involved in the arrest, detention and torture, including whether he or she knew any of them prior to the events relating to the alleged torture, clothing, scars, birthmarks, tattoos, height, weight (the person may be able to describe the torturer in relation to his or her own size), anything unusual about the perpetrator’s anatomy, language and accent and whether the perpetrators were intoxicated at any time; (iv) Contents of what the person was told or asked. This may provide relevant information when trying to identify secret or unacknowledged places of detention; (v) A description of the usual routine in the place of detention and the pattern of ill-treatment; (vi) A description of the facts of the torture, including the methods of torture used. This is understandably often difficult, and investigators should not expect to obtain the full story during one interview. It is important to obtain precise information, but questions related to intimate humiliation and assault will be traumatic, often extremely so; (vii) Whether the individual was sexually assaulted. Most people will tend to answer a question on sexual assault as meaning actual rape or sodomy. Investigators should be sensitive to the fact that verbal assaults, disrobing, groping, lewd or humiliating acts or blows or electric shocks to the genitals are often not taken by the victim as constituting sexual assault. These acts all violate the individual’s intimacy and should be considered as being part and parcel of sexual assault. Very often, victims of sexual assault will say (g) Statement from the person who is alleging torture 100. The investigator should tape-record a detailed statement from the person and have it transcribed. The statement should be based on answers given in response to non-leading questions. Non-leading questions do not make assumptions or conclusions and allow the person to offer the most complete and unbiased testimony. Examples of non-leading questions are “What happened to you and where?” rather than “Were you tortured in prison?”. The latter question assumes that what happened to the witness was torture and limits the location of the actions to a prison. Avoid asking questions with lists, as this can force the individual into giving inaccurate answers if what actually happened does not exactly match one of the options. Allow the person to tell his or her own story, but assist by asking questions that increase in specificity. Encourage the person to use all his/her senses in describing what has happened to him or her. Ask what he or she saw, smelled, heard and felt. This is important, for instance, in situations where the person may have been blindfolded or experienced the assault in the dark. (h) Alleged perpetrator’s statement 101. If possible, the investigators should interview the alleged perpetrators. The investigators must provide them with legal protections guaranteed under international and national law. 3. Securing and obtaining physical evidence 102. The investigator should gather as much physical evidence as possible to document an incident or pattern of torture. One of the most important aspects of a thorough and impartial investigation of torture is the collection and analysis of physical evidence. Investigators should document the chain of custody involved in recovering and preserving physical evidence in order to use such evidence in future legal proceedings, including potential criminal prosecution. Most torture occurs in places where people are held in some form of custody, where preservation of physical evidence or unrestricted access may be initially difficult or even impossible. Investigators must be given authority by the State to obtain unrestricted access to any place or premises and be able to secure the setting where torture allegedly took place. Investigative personnel and other investigators should coordinate their efforts in 21