Abstract
This chapter provides much-needed focus on developing norms of professional practice in the domain of monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding (MRF). Section I, based primarily on a series of interviews with high-level MRF professionals, examines practitioners’ perceptions about what guidelines and standards have been used in the past, what types of guidelines would have proved useful, and what, in general, are the challenges that might hinder developing and implementing additional guidelines. Section II explores how the domain of MRF might surpass these challenges, and assesses another professional domain—the humanitarian sector—that has similarly grappled with devising systematized norms of professional practice. In particular, this section focuses on the development and implementation of the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. Section III offers concluding remarks about the route forward.