Witness Protection

Witnesses are the cornerstones of successful criminal justice systems. Protecting them from intimidation or threats against their life because of cooperation with law enforcement or judicial authorities is critical to the maintenance of the rule of law. Furthermore, witness protection programs are considered a key tool in the dismantling of organized crime networks. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (TOC Convention) calls upon state parties to take appropriate measures to protect witnesses in criminal proceedings from threats, intimidation, corruption or bodily injury, and to strengthen international cooperation in this regard.

UNODC has developed a series of tools to support Member States develop and operate special programs to support protect witnesses of crimes. They include:

1) The UNODC "Good Practices in the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime". The good practices which were launched in February 2008 provide a comprehensive picture of available witness protection measures and offer practical options for adaptation and incorporation in the legal system, operational procedures and particular social, political and economic circumstances of UN Member States. They have been developed in a series of regional meetings with the active participation of expert representatives from law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial authorities of Member States. They reflect experience from different geographical regions and legal systems, together with existing literature, previous and ongoing work by UNODC as well as other international and regional organizations.

The good practices identified take a holistic approach to witness protection. They examine a series of measures that may be undertaken to safeguard the physical integrity of people who give testimony in criminal proceedings from threats against their life and intimidation. These measures provide for a continuum of protection starting with the early identification of vulnerable and intimidated witnesses, moving through the management of witnesses by the police and enactment of measures to protect their identity during court testimony and culminating with the adoption of the exceptionally severe measures of permanent relocation and reidentification.

In the development of the good practices, UNODC consulted with more than 60 Member States and international organizations such as Europol, Eurojust, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Interpol, SECI Regional Center for Southeast Europe, Sierra Leone Special Court as well as UNAFEI and UNICRI.

Full text of the manual (pdf). Spanish version (pdf), Russian version (pdf), French version (pdf), Arabic version (pdf).

2) UNODC has developed a model law on witness protection for Latin American countries. It was developed by an experts group held in Santiago, Chile with the participation of officials from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the International Association of Prosecutors, the International Criminal Court, the Organization of American States, Panama and Peru. The model law was finalized and published in Spanish under the banner of UNODC and OAS and was launched officially in the annual conference of the Iberoamerican Association of Attorney General Offices (AIAMP) in Madrid, Spain in October 2007. It has been used already in Honduras and presented on the VI Brazilian Seminar on Victim/Witness Assistance and Protection held in Salvador de Bahia in December. In April 2008 an expert group meeting will be held to universalize the model law.

Workshop on witness protection

From 7-9 July 2008, UNODC organized a witness protection training workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in partnership with the Attorney General's Office. The aim was to familiarise Kenya's authorities with internationally accepted good practices and the requirements for the operationalisation of a witness protection program.

The three-day workshop was attended by more than 50 participants representing policy makers, operational law enforcement, justice officials and non-governmental organizations from Kenya as well as experts from UNODC, the Netherlands, US, UK, the International Criminal Court and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The workshop gave participants the opportunity to compare the important elements of some of the most successful programmes available internationally. It provided an overview of witness protection - both from the perspective of a traditional witness security program and of a more flexible and broader victim/witness assistance and support point of view. The workshop resulted in a number of specific and practical recommendations for the opearationalization of Kenya's witness protection program.