26 A practical guide to the Istanbul Protocol – for lawyers sense that its exercise must not be unjustifiably hindered by the acts or the omissions of the authorities.”100 Furthermore, authorities must always make a serious attempt to find out what happened101 and “should not rely on hasty or ill-founded conclusions to close their investigation or as the basis of their decisions.”102 Investigations should be of reasonable scope and duration in relation 103 to the allegations. In Blake, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights also referred to the need for 104 “effectiveness” and specified the duty to adopt all the internal legal measures necessary to facilitate the identification and punishment of those responsible.105 The Court specified that the State fails to comply with its duty to investigate effectively if “the State apparatus acts in such a way that the violation goes unpunished and the victim’s full enjoyment of such rights is not restored as soon as possible”,106 thereby stipulating an obligation of result in addition to process. The Court has also specified that “effectiveness” requires that victims have full access and capacity to act at all stages of the investigation.107 The European Court of Human Rights has analysed what steps authorities must take when gathering evidence, and has made reference in its jurisprudence to offers of assistance; objectivity; attitude of the authorities towards victims and alleged perpetrator(s); timely questioning of witnesses; seeking evidence at the scene, e.g. by searching detention areas, checking custody records, carrying out objective medical examinations by qualified doctors; use of medical reports, and, in death in custody cases, obtaining forensic evidence and carrying out an autopsy.108 4. KEY PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR AN EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION The following section provides a summary of best practices, drawing largely on the Istanbul Protocol. Further guidance on documenting torture can be obtained from the 109 DeEssex Torture Reporting Handbook. tailed procedures, expanding on the Istanbul Protocol guidelines on obtaining physical evidence in Chapter V and psychological evidence in Chapter VI, are explained in the Medical physical examination of alleged torture victims: A practical guide to the Istanbul Protocol – for medical doctors (IRCT, 2009a) and in the Psychological evaluation of torture allegations: A practical guide to the Istanbul Protocol – for psychologists (IRCT, 2009b). The key principles of an effective investigation include: • Investigators must be competent, impartial and independent of suspects and the national authority for which the alleged perpetrators work • Methods used to carry out investigations should meet the highest professional standards and findings should be made public • Investigators should have the authority and obligation to obtain all information necessary to the inquiry • Necessary budgetary and technical resources should be made available to investigators • Anyone allegedly implicated in torture should be removed from any position of control over the victims, witnesses and their families and investigators • The investigative mechanism should have access to independent legal advice to ensure that the investigation produces admissible evidence for criminal proceedings • The investigative mechanism should have the authority to seek assistance from international legal and medical experts