Strong laws to protect victims of crime, witnesses

A new bill presented to Parliament for the assistance and protection to victims of crime and witnesses makes legal provision to allow such person to give testimony to court or a commission through audio-visual links from any location, whether within or outside Sri Lanka.

The legislation which recognizes the rights and entitlements of victims of crime and witnesses has been a long time in the making and its introduction was one of the pledges made by the Government to the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year. The bill gives effect to international norms and practices relating to victims of crime and witnesses. It was presented to Parliament on Thursday and will be taken up for debate this month.

The bill will provide for the setting up of a National Authority to protect and promote the rights and entitlements of victims of crime and witnesses. The Authority will, among its other functions, implement a scheme for the payment of compensation to victims of crime.

The Police will also be required to establish and maintain a special division called the Victims of Crime and Witnesses Assistance and Protection Division with a senior DIG in charge. In cases where there are threats, reprisals, intimidation, retaliation or any harm being caused to the Strong laws to victims of crime or witnesses, the protection programme will provide them with security, temporary housing or accommodation, permanent re-location, temporary or permanent employment, necessary refinances and even new identification.

Those entitled to such protection include victims of crime or witnesses who have reasonable grounds to believe that harm may be inflicted on them. An Assistance and Protection Fund too will be set up under this new legislation to pay compensation to those victims who as a result of a crime have sustained bodily injury, physically or mentally, loss or damage of property, as well as pay compensation to dependent family members in cases where the victims of a crime has died or is physically or mentally incapacitated.

The bill was referred to the Supreme Court as an urgent piece of legislation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Court determined that, excepting a few amendments to its contents, the bill is consistent with the constitution.The three-member bench headed by Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardena, noted that the process through which a decision to grant protection is made must be clarified to ensure that one body does not grant protection only to have it removed by another and to ensure that victims and witness have confidence in the process.The Court has suggested that the determination to grant protection be made by an application to court and that these could be considered by the Attorney General. It also noted that it is important for there to be independence of the police Protection Division and suggested that this should be a separate division that is independent of the functions of investigations and prosecution.