The admissibility of evidence

What evidence the court determines to be admissible for the trial depends on the applicable rules of evidence for the court. Types of evidence include witness testimony, opinion and expert testimony, documentary or tangible evidence.

In weighing the evidence brought before the court, the court will carefully consider a range of aspects including relevance, authentication and identification of the evidence, credibility of the witness, reliability of the expert, the value of hearsay and the chain of custody in case of documentary evidence. In order to reach the level of “high standard of proof” which is mostly required in judicial proceedings, the information gathered must be accurate, reliable and of good quality [14]. Considerations to take into account are:

• the source of information; 
• the level of detail of the account; 
• the consistency of the allegation; 
• corroborating elements supporting an allegation or corroborating evidence; 
• recent information.

The standard of proof varies depending on whether it is a criminal or civil case. In a criminal case the defendant has to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil case the applicable rule is the preponderance of evidence.

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14. The Torture Reporting Handbook, Camille Giffard, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, February 2000, Part II.2.