A/HRC/42/CRP.3 B. Methodology 13. In preparing this report, the Mission again followed established methodologies and best practices for human rights fact-finding, as developed by the United Nations. In doing so, the Mission adhered to the principles of “do no harm”, independence, impartiality, objectivity, transparency and integrity. The findings contained in this report are also based on methodologies for investigation and protection of victims and witnesses, consistent with previous Mission reports.9 14. Given the thematic investigation focus of this report, the Mission considered the following sources of information: (a) statistics, surveys and other quantitative information, to the extent that the information was based on sound methodology and originated from credible and reliable sources; (b) corporate records, including through Myanmar government company registration,10 open source11 and private-subscription12 databases that list the ownership and/or senior management of privately-held companies; (c) annual reports by the Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative with respect to the extractive sector (oil, gas, copper, coal, gems and timber); (d) other documents containing first-hand information from credible and reliable sources, as well as credible and reliable literature documenting Myanmar’s conflict resource economy, demonstrating how natural resource extraction and production sectors directly and indirectly generate revenue for the Tatmadaw and finance, directly or indirectly, their leaders and military activities; (e) confidential interviews conducted by the Mission with subject-matter experts with first-hand knowledge of Tatmadaw business practices and structures, provided that the Mission assessed the source and/or the content to be credible and reliable; (f) information contained in expert interviews, public reports, media accounts, submissions and academic research publications, where the Mission assessed the source and/or the content to be credible and reliable; (g) (h) officials; credible and reliable satellite imagery and analysis; publicly available admissions of relevant facts by Myanmar and foreign (i) laws, policies and directives of Myanmar and internal government documents, provided that they were received from credible and reliable sources and their authenticity was not in doubt. 15. The Mission shared this report with the Government of Myanmar on 31 July with a view to soliciting information about any factual inaccurancies, by 4 August. No response was received at the time of publication. The Missions also sought where possible information from other governments and businesses referred to in the report, to which it received several replies. 16. During the Mission’s investigation for this report, the Mission received numerous allegations of companies collaborating directly with ethnic armed organizations in northern Myanmar in the exploitation of natural resources.13 These are natural resources that fund and 9 10 11 12 13 For full details, see A/HRC/39/CRP.2. Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), Union of Myanmar (https://www.dica.gov.mm/). International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (www.icij.org) and OpenCorporates (www.opencorporates.com). Orbis database, Bureau van Dijk (www.bvdinfo.com). As in A/HRC/39/CRP.2, this report uses the term “ethnic armed organization” when referring to nonState armed groups operating in northern Myanmar (Kachin and Shan States) in opposition to the 7