WUNRN
ICC - International Criminal Court -
The Hague, Netherlands
28
March 2014 - Experts highlight security weaknesses that could endanger entire
cases. The decision by a number of witnesses to pull out of two cases from Kenya
currently before the International Criminal Court (ICC) has raised serious
questions about the court’s ability to protect those who come to The Hague to
testify. In the separate cases against Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta and
his deputy, William Ruto, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has repeatedly
complained of widespread witness intimidation and interference........Besides
the Kenya cases, there have also been other incidents where witnesses under the
ICC’s protection programme have felt threatened or intimidated. Last year, four
witnesses under the protection of the court’s Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU)
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claimed that they had been sexually
abused by a court staff member........
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----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 4:03 PM
Subject: Witness Protection - Importance to Women at Risk
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.