The Autonomous Women's Center submitted its contributions and general comments related to the development of the new National Strategy for the realization of the rights of victims and witnesses of criminal acts in the Republic of Serbia.
Concern was expressed about the fact that at the moment when the Ministry of Justice starts working on a new Strategy, it is simultaneously proposing Draft Laws (amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the new Law on Juvenile Offenders and Criminal Legal Protection of Juveniles in Criminal Procedures) which reduce the achieved rights of injured parties and witnesses (by enabling suspects the right to appeal the status of a particularly sensitive witness, by abolishing the right to the mandatory appointment of a representative for minor injured parties...).
The working group for the development of a new strategy was informed that the provisions of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, which were presented in October 2024, and are now repeated during the current public debate, do not represent the harmonization of criminal procedure legislation with Directive 2012/29/EU on the establishment of minimum standards for the rights, support and protection of victims of criminal acts, because the improvements are modest and often limited by the interests of the procedure.
It was repeated what AWC insisted on during the development of the Strategy, which points out:
- that it is not possible to approach the development of a strategy without statistical data on the total number of victims in criminal proceedings at the beginning of those proceedings, classified by criminal offenses before Basic and Higher Public Prosecutor's Offices, and Basic and Higher Courts
- that victim assistance and support services should be established where victims first give their testimony, which is used as evidence in the proceedings (Primary and Higher Public Prosecutor's Offices), and not where they may end up testifying (Primary and Higher Courts)
- that victim assistance and support services cannot be based on the work of one, changeable, professional associate in the Public Prosecutor's Office or Court
- that it is necessary to consider extending the name and content of the strategy to misdemeanor offenses as well
Research on respect for the minimum rights of victims of gender-based violence, from the moment of reporting to the end of criminal proceedings, conducted by the Autonomous Women's Center and the Forum of Judges of Serbia with the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) project 'Justice for All', was submitted to the working group, with a request to consider the examples of good practice of Prosecutors' Offices and Courts in Serbia when drafting the text of the new Strategy related to the respect and appreciation of the rights of victims.
You can read the comments and proposals of the AWC regarding the development of the new National Strategy for the realization of the rights of victims and witnesses of criminal offenses in the Republic of Serbia HERE.
