Please - Odhikar

2. Victims must be given some compensation, rehabilitation and/or reparation.
3. An additional punishment should be given to the person who intimidates victims and
witnesses.
4. We need a long term structural system to protect the rights of victims and witnesses
rather than another law. Implementation of present laws is more important now.
5. Before giving the final report the investigating officer must be examined.
6. The statements given by victims under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
and other statements that are given to the police should be examined thoroughly. There should
be some mechanism to look after the whole system.
7. Police should undergo gender training and be gender sensitized.
B. The Laws and the Legal System
1. We should make the law of bail more stringent for very serious crimes like murder, rape,
trafficking. There are top terrorists in the country that get bail 13-15 times, but the child
prisoners never get any bail.
2. An independent, accountable and responsible judiciary is a must. The loopholes and
lackings in the laws should be weeded out and laws should be reviewed, amended and, if
necessary, repealed.
3. There should be some special court to combat trafficking.
4. We can take examples from the provisions of the Rome Statute to formulate a law for the
protection of victims and witnesses in out countries.
5. The treatment the victim should get from the court and defense lawyer must be
identified.
6. We need to look at the prison system to see whether it is causing further degradation and
sufferings of the victims. There are many notorious criminals who control the whole crime scene
from behind bars.
C. The Role of the Media
1. A Code of Professional Ethics has to be created and implemented by all the media -
whether written or electronic, to ensure the protection of victims and witnesses, especially
women and child victims. This Code may be one used by all the media or in-house and used by
the paper/channel internally.
D. The Role of the Internet
1. The important judicial laws and regulations in the region should be posted in a website
for judges, lawyers, the media, activists, etc.
2. Developing a website constituting of human rights organizations and the specific areas in
which they work. This would be helpful for victims and witnesses seeking help and also help
the people chose who to consult, communicate with and get information for any sort of help.
Report 2005
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