Chapter 13: Prepare the report KEY QUESTIONS • Why should a national inquiry prepare a report? • What should the inquiry’s report contain? • To whom should a report be directed? • What formats can a report take? 13.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REPORT The national inquiry’s report is its most tangible product. Producing an accurate and well-written report is not the only objective of a national inquiry. Nonetheless, it is a very important one. A good report will ensure much better community understanding of the nature of the human rights issue or situation that has been examined and a much better possibility that the inquiry’s recommendations are accepted and implemented. Because the report is a piece of “persuasive communication”, the inquiry will want and need to select, order and use the evidence, personal stories, arguments, examples, other information, language, tone, illustrations, layout and design, cover and title effectively to achieve the inquiry’s purpose and communicate effectively and persuasively to the target audiences. From the beginning, therefore, the inquiry must consider what the final report will find and recommend. Early consideration of the report also assists the writing task. The inquiry will collect an enormous quantity of information – statistical data, descriptive materials, research findings, analyses and so on. It will hear the views and arguments of large numbers of experts and other stakeholders. It will receive the stories and experiences of large numbers of victims and their families. Organising and analysing this material will be difficult. Writing the report is a demanding, complex and time-consuming task. Developing clear ideas about the nature of the report early in the inquiry helps to ensure that all necessary information is identified, sought, obtained and organised in ways that will facilitate the report writing. Of course, the report cannot be written in advance but it can be planned in advance, from the very beginning. The scoping paper should discuss what form the report might take and what it might contain. It should certainly indicate who will be responsible for writing the report and for developing the recommendations. Having an early draft of a table of contents of the final report is a good way to ensure that the conduct of a national inquiry is well focused on the preparation of the report. The table of contents indicates the issues that will be covered in the report and enables the national inquiry to focus on obtaining the necessary information and undertaking the necessary analysis to report on all those issues. Identifying the issues also helps in the development of recommendations. The actual writing task goes hand-in-hand with the public hearing component of the inquiry. Typically, a report will go through many drafts. Writing the report will be a challenging undertaking because of the complex connections among issues involving systemic human rights violations. The report cannot be completed until all the evidence has been gathered and analysed. However, the writing must begin well before that if the national inquiry is to complete its work in a timely manner. Chapter 13: Prepare the report | 63