Good Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime
- Document number
- 1757
- Date
- 2008
- Title
- Good Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime
- Author/publisher
- UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Training Material/Resources,
- Keywords
- Organized crime, Witness assistance, Witness protection programs, Relocation, Identity change, Human rights approach,
- Summary
- Protection may be as simple as providing a police escort to the courtroom, offering temporary residence in a safe house or using modern communications technology (such as videoconferencing) for testimony. There are other cases, though, where cooperation by a witness is critical to successful prosecution but the reach and strength of the threatening criminal group is so powerful that extraordinary measures are required to ensure the witness’s safety. In such cases, resettlement of the witness under a new identity in a new, undisclosed place of residence in the same country or even abroad may be the only viable alternative.
- Related documents