A/HRC/45/CRP.7 13. Accordingly, the incidents and patterns included in the present report and in the report submitted to the Council are all those for which the Group considered it had “reasonable grounds to believe” had occurred, even when this expression or alternate terms of “verified” or “concluded” are not explicitly used. Additionally, when relevant to an understanding of certain violations, the Group has indicated in the text when it has received “allegations” that it has not been able to verify due to constraints in accessing sources of information. Finally, the Group has also referred to “credible reports” it received when allegations originated from credible sources but they could not be verified. C. Sources of information and constraints 14. As with the approach followed during the two previous reporting periods, the following sources were considered sources of direct information: interviews with victims; interviews with direct eyewitnesses to an event; videos, photographs, satellite imagery and documents whose authenticity has been assured; decrees, regulations and directives issued by governments or de facto authorities; publicly available statements from parties to the conflict, including statements made via State media outlets; statistics, surveys, reports, and other quantitative and qualitative information generated by United Nations organisations, bodies, agencies, funds and programmes. For the purposes of corroborating information from direct sources, and for providing a contextual understanding, the Group of Experts considered information, including witness testimony, situational analysis, descriptions of patterns of conduct and other material from publications or submissions by the United Nations, governments, human rights and humanitarian organisations; affidavits or other authenticated witness statements provided to reputable human rights organisations where the Group of Experts was able to validate the methodology used by the organisations to obtain the statement. Where the Group relied upon information contained in secondary sources, such as reports, for corroborative purposes it aimed to discuss the methodology, findings, and/or analysis with the author whenever possible. 15. The Group of Experts reviewed a substantial quantity of primary and secondary sources of information, including conducting more than 400 interviews with victims and witnesses, and collecting and reviewing open source and digital information. The Group continued to adhere to interview protocols and representativeness in the selection of persons to be interviewed as well as gender and age sensitivity. 16. The Group of Experts strictly adhered to the principles and standards of fact-finding aimed at assuring the safety, security and well-being of witnesses and victims. To that end, the present report includes information only where sources granted informed consent and where disclosure would not lead to any identification or result in harm. In line with existing United Nations policies on information sensitivity, classification and handling, information provided by witnesses and other confidential materials have been classified as strictly confidential. While taking these steps, the Group underlines that the primary responsibility for protecting victims, witnesses and other persons cooperating with the Group lies with their States of residence and nationality. 17. The Group of Experts also reviewed satellite imagery and obtained expert analysis from UNITAR-UNOSAT3, which supplemented its own internal review of the imagery, as well as documents, photographs and videos, including recordings made by witnesses and judicial documents. Findings were made using only those materials that the Group was able to authenticate. The Group of Experts also collected, reviewed and analysed information drawn from a variety of open sources that served either as leads to inform further investigation by the Group, as means to assess the credibility and reliability of other sources or the validity of information, or as part of the corroboration process. In all cases of review of open source material, the authenticity, veracity and credibility of the content was established using best practices of current open source analytical methods. 3 All UNITAR-UNOSAT assessments included in this report are also available on the website of the Group of Experts at: http://www.ohchr.org/en/HRBodies/HRC/YemenGEE 8