Today more than ever, information is an essential element in the struggle against the death penalty. In order to work towards its abolition, it is essential to possess credible and verified information which might, in particular, focus on the number of sentences, executions, conditions of detention and the impact of death sentences on prisoners’ families and friends. This information is used to document various mediums such as campaigns for abolition of the death penalty, to strengthen advocacy with parliamentarians or the executive, and for the media and the wider public.
Information comes from a variety of sources – voluntary sector, legal, official or factual amongst others – which complement one another. This complementarity of sources means that more comprehensive information can be obtained and corroborated in order to verify it and measure its credibility.
The methods used to find and obtain information are varied and can, for the purposes of this article, be separated into two sub-groups:
• Information obtained on the ground, such as interviews with prisoners sentenced to death, their family and friends, lawyers or prison guards for example;
• Information obtained through documentary research, such as reports from specialised organisations, national institutions, the UN, judicial decisions, research, studies or press articles, to name but a few, which can be found in libraries, on the internet or by using social networks, specialised search engines or information bulletins, amongst other things. Suggestions for where to find information were provided by Delphine Lourtau and Sophie Fotiadi (see the sidebar at the end of the article).
Access to information on the death penalty can prove to be particularly difficult in certain countries. Information can be non-existent in countries where the statistics on the death penalty are a State secret; in others, it exists but it is not easy to access. In India, for example, as Anup Surendranath, Director of the Death Penalty Centre, explained, there are no official figures on the number of prisoners sentenced to death. In order to obtain them, the Death Penalty Centre, which launched a research project in 2013 based on interviews with prisoners sentenced to death and their family and friends¹⁰³, had to develop three research strategies: with prisons, with the appeal courts and by using the Indian law on the right to information¹⁰⁴ in order to define the number of prisoners sentenced to death in India. This shows that even when information does not exist as such, a good research strategy can find it, even if more time and access to a greater number of sources are required. The principle always has to be respect for a certain number of rules, particularly verification of sources, respect for confidentiality, where applicable, and the security of the information and its source.
Once information has been collected, whatever the source, the first rule to respect is to verify the information and the source: assess their credibility and reliability, check that the author did not seek to give a particular slant to the information, check its topicality and, finally, ensure that complete information has been provided.
It is also essential to keep in mind issues surrounding ethics and security with regard to information. It is important to verify if information is confidential and, where applicable, establish with which audience, what the consequences are of divulging it, if it puts the source in danger, as well as any other ethical question which could be asked depending on the type of information. The answers to these questions will ensure safe and relevant use of the information by the user.
Rules relating to ethics and security are particularly relevant when it comes to interviews with prisoners sentenced to death, for example, where it is essential to follow strict rules to avoid the person interviewed being placed in danger and so as not to damage the credibility of the person/organisation carrying out the interview. For example, prison authorities could prevent meetings with a prisoner for an interview. In that case, the person carrying out the interview must convince the authorities to give him/her access to the prisoner without breaking the law and ensuring that the safety of the prisoner is not compromised.
Several principles have been developed, particularly by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2001¹⁰⁵, to show how the human rights situation can be documented ethically. The UN principles are used by numerous NGOs. The principles proposed by the NGO The Advocates for Human Rights at the workshop and set out in detail below allow for the collection of information in respect of precise rules in order to protect the user of the information, the source and the information itself:

Principles for monitoring the human rights situation¹⁰⁶
Principle 1: Do not cause harm
Principle 2: Respect your mandate
Principle 3: Know the standards
Principle 4: Keep a cool head
Principle 5: Seek consultation
Principle 6: Respect the authorities
Principle 7: Credibility
Principle 8: Transparency
Principle 9: Confidentiality
Principle 10: Security
Principle 11: Understand the country
Principle 12: Coherency, perseverance and patience
Principle 13: Detail and precision
Principle 14: Impartiality
Principle 15: Sensitivity
Principle 16: Integrity and professionalism
Principle 17: Visibility