Chapter 15 — Main Aims, Outputs and Methods of Thematic Trial Monitoring Nevertheless, while thematic projects may centre on specific topics, they may also look more broadly at all factors influencing the issues that concern them. As an illustration, war crimes monitoring programmes look well beyond courtroom proceedings. They endeavour to identify institutional obstacles to securing criminal accountability, track the progress of regional co-operation efforts in the collection of evidence, and/or assess outreach efforts by the courts. When thematic projects are part of a systemic programme, their aims may coincide with the more general objectives of the programme, supporting justice reforms compliant with fair trial standards. 15.2 Staffing, capacity-building and field support for thematic monitoring When hiring or selecting monitoring staff to work on thematic topics, programmes should endeavour to engage professionals who have academic knowledge, experience or training in the corresponding fields. It is also important to assess the individuals’ commitment to remaining engaged in the field for a considerable length of time, given that thematic projects have a long duration, so developing institutional memory is a consideration. Sufficient training of monitoring staff is also crucial for the effectiveness of thematic monitoring, since a general legal background will rarely suffice. Therefore, depending on the level of legal complexity of the monitored cases or issues and the particularities of monitoring methodology, further education or specialized training for monitors may be needed, either in-house, in the host country or abroad. When thematic monitoring is part of a systemic programme, it is imperative that programme managers adapt internal reporting templates to reflect the specific information collection and analytical needs of the thematic project. For instance, the trial-monitoring manual and the daily hearing reports developed by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina were subsequently adapted to include a special focus on war crimes and trafficking in human beings. Any differences in monitoring methodology should also be clearly spelled out to monitors in written guidelines. As in systemic monitoring, organizing regular meetings among thematic monitoring staff to discuss cases and issues can enhance the effectiveness of the programme. Such meetings enable staff to keep up-to-date with developments, share experiences and discuss possible improvements in the methodology of monitoring and advocacy activities. Meetings can occur both at the domestic and the regional levels, if relevant. For instance, ODIHR brought together individuals responsible for monitoring war crimes in different field operations, which enabled monitors and programme managers to improve their operations by comparing methodologies and drawing good practices from other programmes. 15.3 Thematic monitoring mode of operations Certain features of systemic monitoring methodology will often have special relevance to, or need to be modified for, thematic trial-monitoring programmes. Most of these features have already been outlined in Part III of this manual, pertaining to systemic monitoring. Thematic programmes, however, may seek to supplement or place special emphasis on some of these. For instance, since cases involving vulnerable defendants may take place behind closed doors, access to in camera proceedings may be particularly important to a thematic programme focusing on such defendants. In such cases, access should be agreed upon with the host country through an MoU.196 Additionally, depending on the theme examined, monitors will need to place special emphasis on particular information-gathering techniques from among those described in Chapter 9. 196 See Chapter, “Access to closed hearings”. 135