This is the first episode in a series exploring  the Mêndez Principles on Effective Interviewing: a new tool to help end coercive interviewing. 

The Méndez Principles are designed to support investigators collect reliable information – not a confession – using rapport-based interviewing techniques. They also uphold the rights of those being interviewed by ensuring that key safeguards are respected in practice. 

Our guest,  Wilder Tayler, has decades of experience in torture prevention. He’s worked for organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists. In Uruguay, he leads the National Preventive Mechanism, visiting places of detention all over the country and advocating for changes to address the risk factors that lead to torture and ill-treatment.

Naturally, he was one of the people asked to help draft the Méndez Principles.