"Guide for independent accountability mechanisms on measures to address the risks of reprisals in complaint management: A practical toolkit", January 2019

...In recent years, reprisals against those who bring complaints to independent accountability mechanisms, family members and others associated with them, have increased. Reprisals have also affected other related stakeholders, including consultants, interpreters, expert witnesses, and members of civil society organizations that have facilitated the IAM processes. These acts can not only devastate the lives of the individuals concerned and their families, but also have serious and deterrent consequences for the willingness and capacity of project-affected individuals and communities to use, and provide information to, the IAMs in the future. As such, reprisals have been identified by the IAMs themselves as a major challenge to their effective functioning. This toolkit seeks to help IAMs approach the risk of reprisals, providing suggested actions, examples and tools that can be used to assess and address reprisals more efficiently and effectively. Two key observations have underpinned the preparation of this toolkit: Reprisals in the context of IAM operations are likely to increase in the future, and, based on current global trends and patterns, are likely to evolve and intensify in terms of the forms they take and their gravity...