7. Composition Of The Monitoring Teams during the preparation phase. If it is found that there is a significant proportion of members of particular groups in the facility, then efforts should be made to reflect those groups in the composition of the monitoring team. Monitors should also consider which languages are spoken in each facility so that they can allocate team members who speak the languages or find interpreters, if necessary. 7.2 Professional and Inter-Personal Skills It is well established that detention monitoring groups should ideally include at least one person with a legal background, and at least one person with a medical background. Ideally, the team would also have other relevant professionals available, including psychologists, engineers, child experts, those with a background in social care and education, as well as those with relevant language skills. In the context of SGBV monitoring and prevention, it would be particularly useful to include health professionals, including those specialized in children’s and women’s health, gender experts, psychologists and social workers. If possible, the team could also include a person/s who has/have direct experience of working with victims or perpetrators of SGBV, including those who have experience dealing with the assistance and rehabilitation of victims. For many monitoring mechanisms, and particularly those with limited human and financial resources, it will, however, not be possible to include such a broad range of professionals in each monitoring visit. In these situations, monitoring mechanisms might try to include experts in selected visits only, or at least get their input into the best techniques and methodology for monitoring SGBV, including how to interview victims of abuse. It might also be that some visits require only a smaller, dedicated team of monitors, depending on the scope and purpose of the visit, especially if the aim is to focus on a particular group of detainees or on a specific issue. Depending on how the visits are organized, gender experts or those with in-depth knowledge of SGBV might, therefore, only be required for selected visits. In addition to specific technical skills, it is important that members of monitoring mechanisms have appropriate inter-personal skills, including good listening skills and cultural and gender sensitivity. This is particularly important for those who will be conducting interviews with survivors or perpetrators of SGBV. 7.3 Language and Working with Interpreters While monitoring mechanisms should make reasonable efforts to include members who can understand and speak the other languages commonly found among detainees/prisoners, this will often not be possible. 34

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