Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions Crisis management checklist 1. IDENTIFY POTENTIAL ISSUES • Conduct a regular risk management review of project-related and operational issues. • Identify potential issues that could become “bad news” stories. • Put in place steps to minimize the risk of a crisis occurring and develop a strategy to manage any crisis that may occur. Never underestimate the problem; failing to understand the level of criticism or concern in the community and among stakeholders can make matters worse. It can also take much longer to rebuild trust and confidence in the NHRI. 2. ESTABLISH A CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM • If a crisis does occur, establish a small team – including key NHRI Members, management and senior staff – with responsibility for planning and implementing the response. • Hold meetings at regular intervals throughout the crisis period. • Collect and review all relevant information related to the issue. • Analyse how the media is reporting the issue and whether the media coverage includes inaccuracies. • Assess community and stakeholder responses, including discussion of the issue on social media. • Develop a set of key messages/talking points to be used in media interviews (and on social media, if appropriate). • Identify who will be the contact person for all media requests and inform all NHRI staff accordingly. Photo by Internews Network is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 12 | Chapter 1: Working effectively with the media