WUNRN
Witness Protection can be highly
important for WOMEN who may experience particular risks, dangers, intimidation,
vulnerabilities because they are female, they may not have funds or legal expertise
on their situation, they may fear for the security of family members, and more.
Examples can be victims and witnesses in trafficking cases, women abused by law
enforcement, women human rights defenders, women in media, women in military
forces and including the UN, women who observe government and private sector
corruption/illegal activity, women who observe or are privy to information that
puts them at risk for disclosure. Women may lack documentation,
support, and/or resources to defend themselves, thus compounding their
risk. This Report pays particular attention to Witness Protection & Serious
& Organized Crime, but can be very important for all women who can be
considered WITNESSES in today's complex world.
Direct Link to Full 19-Page Document:
WITNESS
PROTECTION AS A KEY TOOL IN ADDRESSING SERIOUS & ORGANIZED CRIME
Karen Kramer
- Senior Expert, Division for Treaty Affairs, UN Office on Drugs & Crime
I.
INTRODUCTION
Many countries are
affected by criminal activities that have a profound impact on human security
and development, such as corruption, drug trafficking, serious and organized
crime, human rights violations and terrorism. Yet, the ability the criminal
justice systems of countries to investigate and prosecute such forms of serious
crimes are often very limited. One of the challenges for many for countries is
in obtaining the cooperation of victims and witnesses in order to obtain
important information and evidence about such criminal matters.
This paper will
discuss: 1) the globalization of organized crime as background on why organized
crime is a problem for all states; 2) why witness protection measures are
important for the effective functioning of criminal justice systems; 3) what is
meant by the concepts of victim and witness assistance, support and security;
4) some of the factors that have given rise to witness protection programmes;
5) the objectives and key features and elements of most witness protection
programmes; 6) the use of witness protection; and 7) provide some
recommendations. This paper looks at witness protection primarily from the
point of view of serious and organized crime but mentions also its use in the
human rights context as well as in the work of the International Courts and
Tribunals.
The paper draws
substantially from the UNODC Good
Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving
Organized Crime manual
published in 2008, as well as upon information obtained from many colleagues
working in the field of witness protection around the world whose expertise,
support and advice have been instrumental to the work of UNODC in supporting
states in this area.