Chapter 9 — Information Gathering and Verification in Systemic Trial Monitoring communicating with detained defendants are more likely to find out about human rights challenges facing these individuals, especially if the defendants are unrepresented. A number of organizations with a human rights mandate have developed projects that look into the conditions of detention and the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.120 The OSCE has been involved in such activities through its human rights personnel and its partnerships with NGOs. However, OSCE trial-monitoring programmes that include communication with detained or convicted persons have generally concentrated their attention on issues related to “access to justice”. This focus has served to avoid duplication of efforts with groups monitoring conditions of detention. It has also helped to avoid “overreaching” in terms of expertise, as most trial monitors are not experts in psychology, hygiene or other fields that would provide the necessary basis for a thorough assessment of detention conditions. The focus on defendants’ access to justice has meant that trial-monitoring personnel seek to gather information directly relevant to the fairness of criminal proceedings, the right to liberty and related remedies, and the effectiveness of legal representation. Besides the checklist on how to interview defendants, guidelines on interviews need to include methodologies to ensure that the interviewer duly conveys to the defendants the scope and limitations of monitoring.121 It is especially important to convey to persons in custody how monitoring operates and to stress that monitors are neither their lawyers nor mediators, so that defendants should not expect any follow-up visit or reporting back from monitors. Such explanations avoid creating misperceptions or undue expectations. This is significant because, of all the persons involved in the justice system, the accused are those most likely to seek an intervention in their particular case, especially when in detention. ·· Accessing persons in detention To gain access to persons in detention, programme managers should be prepared to contact directors of detention centres and prisons at the outset of a programme to present their activities and establish good co-operation.122 Concluding an access agreement may be considered, although some OSCE programmes have had no difficulties in gaining access to detainees without special agreements. While projects that review the conditions of detention may employ “surprise” visits, this is not necessary for trial-monitoring programmes, where interviews with detained persons can be planned and announced to directors of detention centres. In this way, the consent and availability of detained persons can be confirmed, while the staff of the detention centre can make the appropriate security arrangements.123 Prior to conducting the interviews with detainees, monitors may wish to speak to the director of the detention centre to gauge her/his views on issues pertaining to the detainees – security concerns, for instance. For the most part, monitors in OSCE programmes have arranged interviews with specific detainees whose cases they followed. In some instances, they have also made themselves available to other detainees who sought interviews and wished to share concerns that fell within the programme’s mandate.124 In practice, however, detainee interviews tend to be time-consuming and may lead to the monitor being called repeatedly by individuals who misunderstand the programme’s mandate and seek OSCE intervention. Programmes can take measures to avoid such situations, for example, 120  For instance, the International Committee of the Red Cross, ombudspersons, and local and international NGOs have developed methodologies that seek to record, prevent or put an end to such problems as torture or inhuman treatment, inhumane conditions of detention and incommunicado detention. 121 See Annex III, for indicative issues for monitors to raise in interviews. 122 See Chapter 4.2.2 referring to introducing a programme to court presidents. 123  To avoid congestion, monitors may agree with the authorities to plan interviews on days other than those assigned to public visits. 124  Interviews on the initiative of the detainees can yield important information. For instance, in one OSCE programme, an interview with a suspect whose case had not been monitored until then revealed that the person had already been tried and acquitted by a different court for the same offence. The judicial authorities had not taken this into account, despite the principle of ne bis in idem or prohibition of double jeopardy. 81