From globe to home: contribution of the international human rights law for protection of the rights of crime victims

Abstract

Focusing on the marginalization of victims of crime in criminal proceedings, the author analyses the significance of the international human rights treaty law in protecting the rights of crime victims and attempts to identify a set of robust standards relating to them that can be applied to any State. The objective of this study is to investigate the way in which international human rights law can be adopted to consider that victims of crime are a group of people whose rights should be protected by the States at domestic level. To reach the aforementioned goal the paper begins with a brief description as to how the protection of the rights of crime victims throughout the criminal justice process was overlooked and victims were not adequately protected in the administration of criminal justice, especially under the adversarial model of the judicial system of trial as a result of rights of suspect/accused and offender were more concerns of the law. The next part of the study presents a description of the relevant international instruments which are important to the subject. Then the discussion moves to analyze some core principles recognized by the international treaty law which could be supported to protect the victims of crime. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need to insist on enforcement of prevailing international standards to domestic laws where there is a vacuum in the contemporary domestic legal framework in protecting the rights of the victims of crime. The qualitative research method is followed to carry out this research which contains an examination of relevant international standards. Primary sources which are relevant to the research include international standards and judicial pronouncements are analyzed. Secondary sources such as reports, research articles and textbooks on this topic and information available on the internet is also reviewed in the discussion.