Last year, the organisation I worked for (the Institute for International Criminal Investigations in The Hague) was contracted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to develop a set of training materials based on their International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict. I'm glad to say that those training materials have finally been made available online. There are ten Powerpoint modules on relevant topics, along with guidance notes to indicate how the materials should be used, how to run the exercises and what specific expertise the trainers should have to be able to deliver the module successfully. Some of the modules are very specific to international criminal law, but some are more general and deal with issues like understanding and recognising sexual and gender-based violence, conducting interviews with vulnerable witnesses, planning investigation or documentation exercises and storing evidence safely. At the moment the materials are only available in English, but because they were designed to be used with the International Protocol they may be translated and made available in other languages at some point in the future. They are a very useful resource for anyone who is conducting trainings on this issue, and they would also be helpful to anyone researching the practicalities of how to improve standards of investigation and documentation in relation to sexual and gender-based crimes. The training materials are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/international-protocol-on-the-documentation-and-investigation-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict-training-materials.
We have also produced specific guidelines on how to investigate or document sexual and gender-based violence committed against men and boys, which recognises some of the unique challenges and considerations of dealing with male victims of these types of crimes. Those guidelines are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidelines-for-investigating-conflict-related-sexual-and-gender-based-violence-against-men-and-boys.
