From 30 June to 2 July, the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) and the ImpleMendez COST Action, in partnership with Politihøgskolen (Norwegian Police University College), hosted an international police interviewing workshop in Bodø. The workshop drew on years of collaboration between NCHR, the ImpleMendez COST Action, UNODC, and practitioners from countries such as Brazil, UK, Indonesia, Thailand, Ukraine, Germany, and Bulgaria, — all of whom have contributed to developing, reviewing, and localising investigative interviewing practices in their own countries justice systems.
At the centre of it all: the Méndez Principles, a set of guidelines developed by previous UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez to reshape how investigators, prosecutors, and other justice actors approach police interviewing. Participants covered the fundamentals of the method, traced how it has taken root differently across partner countries. They also worked toward an ImpleMéndez guide highlighting key steps, common obstacles, and successful strategies for implementing investigative interviewing around the world.
Putting the Méndez Principles into practice
The workshop brought together 45 participants from 14 countries, focusing on the practical implementation of investigative interviewing. Drawing on the Méndez Principles, participants dug into how evidence-based, rights-respecting interviewing methods are being adopted — and adapted — across vastly different legal systems. The sessions highlighted how these frameworks and related training tools support national implementation. Throughout, the participants shared experiences, challenges, and lessons learned to build a collective understanding of effective training and capacity-building in practice.
The result was a rare moment of stocktaking: a chance to see exactly how far different training programmes for professionals, mostly within police organisations, have come in implementing investigative interviewing and aligning policy and practice with the Méndez Principles.
For many participants, this stocktaking exercise was also a reminder of why the work matters in the first place.
"Transforming how police talk with victims and interrogate suspects is a global challenge, shaped by each country's resources, professionals, and culture. Opportunities like this allow us to learn from one another, develop shared solutions, and adapt them to different realities." - Dr William Weber Cecconello, CogJus, Brazil
A global exchange of practice
One of the workshop's key features was a series of insights from trainers representing the Norwegian Méndez Centre's key partner countries — Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, and Ukraine — alongside Germany, Bulgaria, Belgium, UK and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Together, they documented the policy decisions, practical steps, challenges, mistakes, and successes shaping implementation in their respective countries.
These insights gave participants the chance to see how investigative interviewing is applied and adapted differently across countries. Helping them identify successful strategies and where obstacles repeat across borders.
Implementing investigative interviewing globally
A highlight of the workshop was the shared push toward developing supplementary training tools — guides for identifying vulnerabilities, checklists, and handbooks among them. Participants split into rotating working groups, each built around a different pillar of the Framework for Investigative Transformation (FIT), a model outlining ten dimensions needed to shift interviewing practice from coercive interrogation toward a rights-based approach. The groups worked through four of these in turn: legislative frameworks, knowledge base, training regimes, and the role of agents of change.
Following each session, group rapporteurs presented their discussions in plenary, with Anna Giudice, Team Leader of UNODC's Access to Justice Team, moderating. These discussions then fed into a feedback session, using the resulting "skeleton" to draft minimum standards and best practices for the implementation guide.
Implementing investigative interviewing in wartime
One of the workshop’s eye opening contributions came from Ukraine, where investigative interviewing has had to take root under extraordinary conditions. Since Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainian authorities have documented more than 239,000 war crimes, with witnesses, prisoners of war, survivors of conflict related sexual violence, and internally displaced persons becoming central sources of evidence.
Vasylyna Yavorska, CEO of JustGroup, presented Ukraine’s progress despite these pressures: a national team of trainers expanding since 2017, national standards adopted in 2022, and a Ukrainian translation of the UN Manual on Investigative Interviewing completed in 2025. The presentation offered a clear example of rights-based methodology advancing even under wartime conditions.
What Participants Take Home
Asked to reflect on the workshop, participants pointed to the practical impact of years of collaborative work. For Professor Ray Bull, one of the architects of the research underpinning the Mendez Principles, seeing that work translate into real-world implementation countries was the standout takeaway.
“Seeing our drafting of the 'Mendez Principles' leading to their implementation in various countries is very important and pleasing” - Professor Ray Bull
For others, the workshop reaffirmed the value of bringing research and practice together in one room. Prof. Dr. Dobrinka Chankova of Bulgaria pointed to both the Méndez Principles themselves and NCHR's role in bringing partners together:
"The Bodø Workshop demonstrated once again the universal validity of the Méndez Principles and the vital importance of collaboration between academia and practitioners. The role of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights as a hub for knowledge and innovation, and a far-sighted visionary, was also confirmed.”
The workshop’s three days in Bodø reflected this in practice: researchers, trainers, and practitioners from across the world working together to translate principles into standards that can be applied globally. As the implementation guide takes shape, that same spirit of exchange will remain central to its success.