At Vote: Rights of Crime Victims [Complete] [Complete]

GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION AT VOTE

Rights of Crime Victims
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.


Category: Human Rights

Strength: Significant

Proposed by: Cowardly Pacifists

Description: The World Assembly:

Convinced that crime victims deserve a meaningful role in the criminal justice system;

Committed to affording crime victims the dignity, respect, and access to justice that they are due;

Resolved that criminal proceedings should be conducted to ensure a fair balance between the rights of crime victims and the rights of criminal defendants;

Hereby enacts the following provisions:

Defines the following terms for the purposes of this Act:

"crime victim" as "a person who as part of a criminal prosecution is alleged to have suffered physical, emotional, or financial harm (actual or threatened) as a result of the criminal conduct of another, who is not simultaneously accused of criminal conduct of their own arising out of the same incident or occurrence." In the event that the crime causes the death or incapacitation of the crime victim, member nations may permit the crime victim's immediate family to exercise the rights afforded under this Act.

"the accused," as "a person who has been formally charged with a crime based on probable cause that they have committed a criminal offense."

"critical stage of the prosecution," as "any date or event at which a substantive or procedural element of the case is resolved or decided," including release hearings, hearings relating to the scheduling of trial, pre-trial evidentiary hearings, plea hearings, trials, sentencings, probation and parole hearings, and any other events deemed critical within the relevant national judicial system.

Mandates that member nations shall provide crime victims with the following rights:

Notice: crime victims shall be notified in advance of any upcoming critical stage of the prosecution, and shall be duly notified of any important developments in the case;

Participation: crime victims shall have the right to be present at any critical stage of the prosecution, to make a statement on the record, and to have that statement duly heard and considered;

Protection: crime victims shall have the right to reasonable protection from the accused throughout the criminal justice process, including but not limited to:

the right to prevent the accused from accessing the crime victim's address and personal identifying information without a court order,

the right to an order restraining the accused and known associates of the accused from harassing, threatening, stalking, or otherwise harming the crime victim,

the right to prevent the accused from directly contacting the crime victim outside the presence of law enforcement officers, and

the right to be tested at no cost for sexually transmitted infections and other serious communicable diseases if the crime victim may have been exposed to those illnesses during the commission of the crime;

Restitution: crime victims shall have the right to seek restitution from the accused through the criminal justice process or through an independent civil action;

Representation: crime victims shall have the right to exercise their rights in-person or through a personal representative or attorney. Member nations are encouraged, but not required, to provide crime victims with an attorney;

Urges member nations to provide crime victims with additional rights not enumerated above where those rights would serve the interests of fairness and justice;

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