A/HRC/25/CRP.1 the DPRK, Mr Kim Jong-un.10 To the date of writing of this report, there has been no response. D. Methods of work 28. During its first meeting in the first week of July 2013, the Commission determined its methodology and programme of work. The Commission decided to pursue the investigation with a maximum of transparency and with due process guarantees to the DPRK, while also ensuring the protection of victims and witnesses. 29. In carrying out its work, and in assessing the testimony placed before it, the Commission was guided by the principles of independence, impartiality, objectivity, transparency, integrity and the principle of “do no harm”, including in relation to guarantees of confidentiality and the protection of victims and witnesses. Best practices were applied with regard to witness protection, outreach, rules of procedure, report writing, international investigation standards, and archiving.11 1. Public hearings 30. In the absence of access to witnesses and sites inside the DPRK, the Commission decided to obtain first-hand testimony through public hearings that observed transparency, due process and the protection of victims and witnesses. Victims and witnesses who had departed the DPRK, as well as experts, testified in a transparent procedure that was open to the media, other observers and members of the general public. More than 80 witnesses and experts testified publicly and provided information of great specificity, detail and relevance, sometimes in ways that required a significant degree of courage. 31. Public hearings were conducted in Seoul (20-24 August 2013), Tokyo (29-30 August 2013), London (23 October 2013) and Washington, D.C. (30-31 October 2013). The authorities of the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America provided operational and substantive support for the conduct of the public hearings, including by facilitating the identification and hiring of a venue, assisting in the provision of the services of professional interpreters and providing video-recording and transcripts of the proceedings. They also ensured the security of the hearings and facilitated contact with the national and international press corps and relevant civil society organizations and individuals. 32. The public hearings covered all areas of the mandate. Witnesses were required to affirm that they were testifying truthfully. The Commissioners ensured that witnesses limited their testimony to issues relevant to the human rights situation in the DPRK and avoided unrelated political or derogatory statements. They also spoke about abuses that they had suffered or witnessed in other countries, to the extent that there was a direct causal link between such abuses and the human rights situation in the DPRK. 33. The Commission invited the authorities of the DPRK to attend and, by leave, to ask questions and make representations at the public hearings in Seoul, London and Washington D.C., but received no reply. Instead, the official news agency of DPRK publicly accused the Commission of slander and claimed that witness testimony was 10 11 10 See Annex I of the Commission report (A/HRC/25/63). In particular, the Commission followed the best practices that are also outlined in Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions on International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law (2013).