If the subject chosen for the national inquiry requires particular technical or specialist expertise that goes beyond the experience and skills of the Inquiry Commissioners, it may be necessary to ensure the accuracy, credibility and persuasiveness of the inquiry’s recommendations to appoint a highly qualified and highly respected expert as a “special adviser” to the inquiry. 7.1.2. Inquiry staff The inquiry will require staff with four areas of expertise: • administration and management • research and writing • community liaison and relations • media liaison and communications. The inquiry secretariat will need to be headed by an inquiry director. The director will need to have skills in all the areas of the inquiry’s work to be able to manage the secretariat effectively. Above all, however, the director will need to be a good manager and a good team leader. Leading the staff for a national inquiry is a complex task with many different responsibilities and functions. It is similar to being executive director of an NHRI itself, though on a smaller scale. It is the key position in the inquiry secretariat. The inquiry will need at least one highly experienced writer. The inquiry’s report is its principal product. It must be well written and persuasive. On the one hand, its style needs to be straightforward and clear, able to be understood by a wide readership. On the other hand it has to be academically rigorous, well grounded in the evidence obtained by the inquiry and strongly and persuasively argued. The chief writer must also be both a good communicator and a strong researcher. It is the most difficult position to fill. Those inquiry staff members who will be responsible for community liaison must be able to relate well and respectfully to people, especially to victims of human rights violation, and to assist the Inquiry Commissioners to promote the inquiry’s recommendations. Because of the trauma that victims may experience in giving public evidence, the liaison team may need to include staff with counselling qualifications and experience. The media liaison staff have to be media smart. The inquiry is dependent on the public mass media to get its message across to the general community. The media will play a critical part in building support for the inquiry and pressure for the implementation of its recommendations. The inquiry will need expert media advice to be able to deal successfully with the media. It will need staff who are known to the media and trusted by the media, who can place positive stories, divert negative stories, correct errors in reporting, respond to criticism and, most importantly of all, secure good, wide and continuing coverage for the inquiry and its activities. The media can make or destroy a national inquiry and so an experienced media specialist is essential on the inquiry team. In assembling the inquiry team, the NHRI should consider the stages at which different skills and expertise are required. For example, any external Inquiry Commissioners will not be required on a fulltime basis. The media specialist will be essential when the inquiry is launched, when the public hearings take place and when the report is released but may not be required full-time at other points in the process. The writers should begin as early as possible but this work is done once the report is written and printed. The inquiry can contain costs by carefully timetabling the engagement of staff through the various stages of the process and by looking at periods of part-time and full-time engagement, rather than engaging all the staff, all the time. Chapter 7: Appoint Inquiry Commissioners and staff | 35