Visit reports are different from internal notes kept by NPMs on their visits. It is recommended that the visiting team draw up internal notes on their visits and save them as written trace and record of each visit, thus contributing to the NPM’s institutional memory.
Internal notes serve as internal resources for the drafting of visit reports by the NPM team but not everything needs to be included in the final visit report. The NPM will likely choose strategically what information to include in the report, depending on the objectives that have been established for the visit.
Usually internal notes focus on information gathered prior to and during the visit by the NPM. They include first hand observations, notes from interviews, photographs or sketches and information from registers and other relevant documentation. As a general rule, internal notes do not include references to the legal framework or in depth analysis or recommendations, which will be drafted later, as part of the visit report itself.
