On May 24, 2016, within the CTP, Kosovo Judicial Institute, with the support of the Council of Europe Office in Pristina, conducted training on "Protection of victims and witnesses".
The training aimed to contribute at the advancement of professional knowledge regarding the institute for protection of victims and witnesses, assessing the need to provide protection for injured parties and witnesses in case of danger, and establishing practices for effective protection of victims and witnesses during the trial.
Within this training were also elaborated the legal framework that covers this area, with particular emphasis on provisions of the CPC, measures for the protection of victims and witnesses and the Law on Witness Protection. In this context, were also discussed the categories of witnesses, with the focus on ordinary witnesses, protected witnesses, anonymous and cooperative witnesses. Furthermore, was discussed the request for anonymity and protection order issuance by the judge, the procedure for declaring a person as a witness and benefits of protected witnesses by law.
In the last part, the training focused on the elaboration of the Witness Protection Program within the Directorate of Witness Protection of the Kosovo Police, the capacity of this department, criteria for entering the protection program and the measures undertaken by the Directorate to protect witnesses as part of this program.
The training was interactively developed by discussing current challenges and practical problems for the protection of victims and witnesses as a special category of criminal procedure.
Beneficiaries of this training were judges and prosecutors of basic level, as well as Kosovo Police officials.
24-05-2016