Behind many shadow reports are women who have shared painful experiences. Their testimony can change how the African Commission sees a State’s record. It can also expose them to danger. Module 5 of RFLD’s manual, Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, is built around one principle: do no harm.
The standard
The manual draws on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Chapter 14 of its 2011 Manual on Human Rights Monitoring deals with the protection of victims, witnesses and other people who cooperate with monitors. It states that monitors “have an obligation not to jeopardize the life, safety, freedom and well-being” of those who cooperate with them.
From that chapter, RFLD’s manual takes four core elements:
- informed consent
- confidentiality
- risk assessment before and during contact
- preventive measures
Informed consent
Consent is informed only when the person understands what she is agreeing to. Before an interview, she should know what the organisation can and cannot do for her. She should also understand how her information will be used and what risks this may carry. She should know that she can refuse, and that she can withdraw her consent at any time.
The manual provides an informed consent record template. It helps interviewers document that these points were explained and understood, without recording more personal information than necessary. Consent is also an ongoing conversation. If the purpose of using a testimony changes, for example from internal documentation to a published report, consent should be sought again.
The manual’s final checklist before submission includes a direct test: identifying details have been removed and consent recorded. A report that cannot pass that test is not ready to send.
Confidentiality
A person’s identity should never be disclosed without her explicit consent. In practice, this means more than removing names. Combinations of details can identify someone: a village, an age, an occupation and a date may be enough in a small community. The manual asks authors to check every case description with this in mind.
Shadow reports submitted to the African Commission are published with the authors’ names. The Commission’s 2022 Guidelines on Shadow Reports allow authors to request anonymity if they fear retaliation. This protects organisations. It does not protect the individuals described in the report, which is why removing identifying details matters so much.
Assessing risk
Risk assessment comes before the first contact and continues throughout. Who might learn that a woman spoke to the organisation? Could her family or community react against her? Is the interview location safe? Will contacting her again draw attention?
Preventive measures follow from that assessment. The manual lists measures such as discreet contact and minimal exposure. Digital security is part of this too. The risk check before submission asks whether digital copies of evidence are stored securely.
Researching sexual violence
Shadow reports on the Maputo Protocol often address sexual violence. For this work, the manual points to the World Health Organization’s 2007 ethical and safety recommendations for researching, documenting and monitoring sexual violence in emergencies. Teams that plan interviews with survivors should read them in full before fieldwork begins.
For reports covering conflict settings, the manual also refers to the Murad Code, the Global Code of Conduct for Gathering and Using Information about Systematic and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. Its current version dates from April 2022. It sets out 10 principles and 86 commitments and is available in more than 15 languages. It applies to human rights monitors, researchers, survivor groups and funders alike.
When not to document
Sometimes the ethical answer is to leave an issue out, or to document it differently. The manual is direct: if documenting an issue would put women at risk, the issue should be handled in another way. Options include relying on aggregated data, using cases already in the public record, working through a partner with stronger protection, or limiting the section to the legal framework.
The manual’s workshop includes an exercise called “A difficult case.” Participants discuss a realistic scenario in which the value of a testimony must be weighed against the safety of the person who gave it. There is rarely one right answer. The exercise helps teams make these decisions before they face them in the field.
A gap worth noticing
Published shadow reports do not always explain how consent was obtained. The manual uses this as a discussion point. A short paragraph in the methodology section, describing how consent and confidentiality were handled, adds credibility and shows respect for the women whose experiences inform the report.
Ethics and credibility go together
Ethical practice protects women first. It also protects the integrity of the evidence, since testimony gathered under pressure, or without real consent, can be challenged. A shadow report that follows these standards is harder to dismiss.
RFLD applies the same principles in its research on violence against women. Readers can see them at work in RFLD’s report on online violence against women in West and Central Africa.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Reporting on the Maputo Protocol: a manual for shadow reports, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
