Witness tampering: A never-ending challenge to the International Criminal Court?
Introduction
Jeremy Bentham, an eminent philosopher and jurist, portrayed the significance of witnesses in criminal trials when he stated: “Witnesses are the eyes and the ears of Justice.” The term ‘witness’ is neither defined under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute) nor under the Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE) to the Rome Statute. Per Black’s Law dictionary, “witness is a person who has knowledge of an event and whose declaration under oath is received as evidence.” There are several types of witnesses who can testify before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ones who have suffered harm (Crimes-based witnesses),
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Witness interference is the “act of the perpetrator to deter the witness from giving full evidence or in any way influencing the nature of the witness’s testimonial evidence.” The issue of witness interference is reflective in Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) strategic plan of 2016-2018 which states that almost all the cases brought before the ICC are confronted with witness tampering (the only case which had no public reference of witness interference is Al-Mahdi case, where the accused charged with the destruction of …show more content…
VWU has established two important initiatives. First, the Initial Response System (IRS) whose mandate is to provide services for the witnesses who appear before the Court. Second, the ICC protection programme (ICCPP) provides protection to witnesses based on the risk assessment. Though VWU looks like a comprehensive regime for witness protection, it has several short-comings. Firstly, being the time-consuming and cumbersome process of accepting witnesses into the ICCPP, which in turn leads to disclosure complications and delays. Secondly, the assessment of participation in the ICCPP can be triggered only by a referral of the prosecution, defence or legal representatives of the victims. Thirdly, VWU is hampered by the lack of resources. The budget resources for VWU in 2014 was only €11,587.8 thousand which is meagre when compared to the ICTY expenditure of $1,671,200 in the year 2000 to cover the travel and allowances of victims and witnesses.
- Relocation of witnesses
The relocation of witnesses, work of the special units within the Registry, helps in preventing the witness from being
I take into consideration that instead of authorizing the state or professional to ratify and speak their mind, the most relevance to a case the court should take into consideration of what the victim seems fit as a fair punishment or payment in forms of restitution, whether it is labor or monetary to then go along with the judge 's sentence. “The Charter, apart from other things, sets forth that the victim should enjoy the same rights as the culprit. But it is not enough to put this in writing, the law has to be changed in such a way that the victim is not only not deprived of his say, but has rights at least equal to those enjoyed by the accused”. I agree with the previous quote due to the fact that victims should not be deprived from speech and equality. I believe that by having the original parties engaged rather than being driven to the side, society will be more concerned to make sure that everyone is given fair, equal and consistent resolution to a conflict. This would establish that the neighbourhood and state have a set of shared values and goals that they are working towards to support social order. “At present, the role of a victim of a crime is only at the periphery of the criminal justice delivery system. Once the first information is furnished, the only stage at which the victim comes into the picture is when she is called upon to give evidence in court by the prosecution. The victim virtually
Cronin-Furman, Kate. “Managing Expectations: International Criminal Trials and the Prospects for Deterrence of Mass Atrocity” in The International Journal of Transitional Justice. Vol. 7, No. 3 (2013): 434-454.
... witness. Therefore it was found through my observations of the civil courts that the courtroom is very much a ritualised environment in which there are considerable power disparities.
Eyewitnesses are primarily used by the criminal justice system for investigating and prosecuting crimes, particularly in circumstances where it is the only evidence available (Wells & Olson, 2003). Their testimony is highly regarded as it allows for police, prosecutors, judges and juries to establi...
In the Criminal Justice system, the main goal is justice or in other words, a fair consequence to match a criminal action. An obvious, yet unmentioned underlying goal is to prevent injustice. Many times, justice prevails, and this is why our system prevails today. However, when justice fails, it is key to look at the information offered in order to better the system and to repay those that have been failed by it. One area that has shown itself as flawed is the area of interrogations though many other areas will be presented throughout this paper as well. By examining five cases involving questionable interrogation and showing other system flaws, I will enlighten others as to how our justice system handles its flaws, and hopefully I will provide motivation for further improvement.
The scientific method is used every day in our lives. We use it to make large and minute decisions, alike. The process is so quick that we use it without knowing. The process starts with a question or an issue, and ends with a solution or more questions. The issue that we will try to address using the scientific method is the reliability of eyewitness testimony. I believe that eyewitness testimony is far less reliable than other forms of evidence in a criminal investigation. We will go through the steps of the scientific method as well as examine existing research to draw our conclusion.
In much of Europe there is an inquisitorial form of trail, whereby a judge is responsible for interviewing witnesses. Th...
"Who Are the Victims?” Who Are the Victims? | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. N.p., 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
According to RJ perspective, a crime is considered a conflict between individuals that result in harm to victims, communities, and offenders, and so these parties are also involved in responding to it. One of the prevalent programs of the RJ system is victim-offender mediation (VOM) program. VOM program is a process which provides interested victims an opportunity to meet the offender, in a safe and structured setting, with the goal of holding the offender directly accountable for their behaviour while providing assistance and compensation to the victims; mediators do not impose settlements. Over the years, the VOM program has proved to be beneficial to both, the victim and the offender.
Truth commissions are political instruments; they can never hope to satisfy victims’ demands for justice and restitution. An analysis of the function of Truth Commissions. By Sam Kingston Student No: 110340967. INTRODUCTION
...th 2001). Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction. In fact the Geneva Convention states that is a person regardless of their nationality should be brought before the court of any state in which that person has committed grave breaches of law and convention. Roth states that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new one but that only in recent years have states been willing to act on universal jurisdiction and go after criminals of the international community regardless of their stating or power within the international community. Roth believes in the ability and authority of international organizations and institutions (Roth 2001).
The consideration of victims by policy makers has taken a much larger role in influencing legislative change in the prevention of crime and the assistance of crime victims, however reforms based on victims remain largely localised to popularised cases and often fail to enter the trial side of the criminal justice system. Victims have the capacity to act as catalysts for reform, but their treatment and consideration in the criminal justice system continues to act more as an indicator of success by the system.
Witnesses are often called before a court of law to testify in trials and their testimony is considered crucial in the identification and arrest of a suspect and the likelihood of a jury convicting a defendant.
WE can however, accommodate mechanisms which operate as additional or subsidiary processes in the discharge of sovereign responsibility. These enable the court system to devote its precious time and resources to the more solemn task of administering justice in the name of sovereign." Street, The language of alternative dispute resolution' (1992) 66 Australian Law Journal, 1994.
Witness payments is a sensitive problem because it is extremely likely to interfere court proceedings. If people, including the parties in the trial, the judges and the jury, know that one particular witness is paid, they might not believe him or her that much. This means that the credibility of the witness is undermined, and the court proceeding will of course be affected and the judicial justice might be questioned as well. In January 1997, the government was urged to pass a legislation to ban payment to witnesses in criminal trials and prevent the media from walking away without punishment.