6.4 Strategies to organize, simplify, and systematize reporting 6.4.1 Using instructions to ensure a clear reporting methodology Reporting instructions or guidelines on the completion of case reports are critical to ensuring consistency in reporting and to enhancing the programme’s capacity to manage and synthesize information. Without clear reporting instructions, monitors may focus on disparate issues, or conversely bury relevant analysis among pages of extraneous facts and issues. Providing written instructions specifically tailored to a reporting template is an invaluable way of assuring consistency in issue coverage and adherence to a common reporting methodology and standard of legal analysis. Such instructions may provide: • An explanation or overview of the issue to be reported; • The applicable international standards and domestic laws to be applied; and • A list of relevant questions to help provide guidance in addressing the issue. While reporting instructions are similar to a checklist in that they raise issues to be monitored and help a monitor to issue-spot (see Chapter 6.3.1, “Open reporting systems”), instructions go further in that they are linked directly to the particular reporting format. This in turn helps ensure not only consistency in issue coverage, but consistency in reporting methodology in terms of how issues are reported and analysed. The following provides an example of reporting instructions for the completion of parts of Section I and Section IV of the sample reporting form provided in the preceding section. Reporting Instructions DAILY HEARING REPORT* * For ease of reference, the instructions on the form are in italics. Due to space restrictions, the entire form with instructions has not been produced. I. CASE INFORMATION This section introduces the reader to the particulars of the case and provides a framework around which the analysis of the hearing will be developed in the remainder of the report. It is essential to complete all information each time a new report is made. Note: Do not leave any entry blank. If there is no appropriate entry, indicate “none” or use the abbreviation “n/a” to assure the reader that the lack of an entry is intentional. Hearing date: (the date of the monitored hearing corresponding to this report) Type of hearing: (plea, trial, sentencing hearing, etc.) (…) IV. ANALYSIS OF CPC IMPLEMENTATION AND ADHERENCE TO FAIR-TRIAL STANDARDS This is the heart of the report, and the analysis set forth here is the key to the success of the entire programme. The collection and compilation of information from the following sections will produce a picture of how the criminal procedure code is being implemented statewide, as well as an assessment of how practices comply more broadly with international fair-trial standards. This section is divided into sub-headings to enable the evaluation of proceedings to be organized into general subject areas relevant to the focus of monitoring. To provide reporting guidance on the subject matter of each sub-heading, explanations, CPC references, and relevant 76 Trial-Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners