A/HRC/25/CRP.1 international human rights law as well as the rights and duties of states in extending diplomatic protection to their nationals and permanent residents. 67. Consistent with the practice of other United Nations fact-finding bodies, the Commission employed a “reasonable grounds” standard of proof in making factual determinations on individual cases, incidents and patterns of state conduct. These factual determinations provided the basis for the legal qualification of incidents and patterns of conduct as human rights violations and, where appropriate, crimes against humanity. 68. There are “reasonable grounds” establishing that an incident or pattern of conduct has occurred when the Commission is satisfied that it has obtained a reliable body of information, consistent with other material, based on which a reasonable and ordinarily prudent person has reason to believe that such incident or pattern of conduct has occurred. This standard of proof is lower than the standard required in criminal proceedings to sustain an indictment, but is sufficiently high to call for further investigations into the incident or pattern of conduct and, where available, initiation of the consideration of a possible prosecution. The findings of the Commission appearing in this report must be understood as being based on the “reasonable grounds” standard of proof, even when the full expression (“reasonable grounds establishing”) is not necessarily expressed throughout the text of this report. 69. In line with the methodology of the Commission, particular emphasis was given to information gathered during public hearings, given that the general public and experts can directly scrutinize the Commission’s assessment of the reliability and credibility of the witness and the validity of the information provided. 70. Individual cases and incidents reflected in this report are generally based on at least one credible source of first-hand information, which was independently corroborated by at least one other credible source of information. To the extent that protection considerations permit, sources are identified. Where the report describes patterns of conduct, these are based on several credible sources of first-hand information, which are consistent with, and corroborated by, the overall body of credible information collected. In the few instances where this rigorous standard of proof could not be met, but the Commission still considered it appropriate to reflect the incident or pattern, the underlying sources are identified. 71. The Commission considered the following to be sources of first-hand information: (a) testimony provided in public hearings and confidential interviews by victims, eyewitnesses, victims’ close family members, perpetrators or former DPRK officials with direct knowledge of the issues, incidents and trends brought before the Commission, where it was assessed that the source was credible and reliable and the information valid; (b) satellite imagery from reliable sources, authenticated video and photo material, autobiographies, and other documents containing first-hand information from a reliable source. This category also includes a number of exhibits received during the public hearings; (c) publicly available admissions of relevant facts by the DPRK; (d) laws, policies and directives of the DPRK as well as internal DPRK documents, provided that they were received from a credible and reliable source and their authenticity could be confirmed; and (e) statistics, surveys and other quantitative information generated by the DPRK or the United Nations, to the extent that the data is based on an apparently sound methodology and the inputs underlying the data are considered valid and originating from a credible and reliable source. 16