The NHRI may also have a separate legal obligation to report to the Government. The inquiry has a moral obligation to report to victims. They are at the centre of the inquiry’s concerns. The inquiry could not have proceeded without their support and participation. The inquiry therefore must give priority to victims in preparing its report. It must ensure that it communicates its findings and recommendations to them in a language and form that they can understand. This is part of the inquiry’s role in affirming the experiences of victims and empowering them to act to obtain redress. The inquiry must also report to all other stakeholders who played a role in the inquiry. This has moral and political dimensions. The inquiry should provide those who gave evidence or otherwise assisted it with feedback on their own contributions and information about the inquiry’s findings and recommendations. In addition, it should seek through its report to strengthen stakeholders’ ownership of the report and the recommendations. This is the political dimension, reporting as a means of building political pressure for the acceptance and implementation of the report’s recommendations. Those to whom recommendations are made are specific targets of the reporting process, both to inform them of the recommendations directed to them and, through the report’s evidence and analysis, to persuade them to implement the recommendations. Finally, the report is directed to the broad community. This is part of the inquiry’s information and education objectives, to increase knowledge and understanding of the particular issue and of human rights generally. It also has a political dimension, contributing further to building political pressure for the implementation of the recommendations. These “target” groups for the report are very diverse. They have great differences in: • political status • socio-economic status • educational levels • literacy • knowledge of governmental processes. A challenge for the inquiry is to write a report that will communicate clearly and effectively to such widely different target audiences. Communication with one group should not be at the cost of good communication with another. For example, the need to produce a strong, convincing report to parliament that meets all the parliamentary reporting requirements may make it difficult for the inquiry to report in a clear, intelligible way to victims. However, reporting to victims is a moral obligation for the inquiry. If the inquiry cannot report adequately to all target groups through one report, it may need to consider alternative or supplementary reporting formats. 13.4. THE FORMAL REPORT OR REPORTS The inquiry’s formal report has to meet parliamentary reporting requirements but those requirements will not dictate how many reports are to be produced or the content of the report or reports. Most inquiries will produce a single, formal report for tabling in parliament. That report will contain all the inquiry’s findings and recommendations and describe its terms of reference and its methodologies or procedures. The inquiry may decide, however, to issue a number of reports that together cover what a single report would cover. The contents of these reports could be chosen in a number of ways. • There could be one report for findings and another for recommendations. • There could be separate reports for different issues or groups of issues, each having findings and recommendations in relation to the issue or issues covered. • There could be separate reports for different “target” groups or sectors, for example, for the Government, for the private sector and for NGOs. Chapter 13: Prepare the report | 65