The Treatment of Victims and Witnesses and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Abstract

The treatment of victims and witnesses has been one of the greatest challengesVictims and Witnesses that has faced the Tribunal in the past 10 years. This is in partdue to the nature of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and perhaps moreimportantly the sense that victim-witnesses are the responsibility of the world at largeand not simply the parties. Moreover, in contrast to many domestic systems, theTribunal has a broader mandate, as it takes the responsibility for defence witnesses aswell as those of the prosecution. The Victims and Witnesses Section is located in theRegistry and most decisions on relocation of witnesses are taken by the Registrarwhereas the responsibility for imposing protection measure for witnesses restsprimarily with the Chambers.