RCI response to the new Programme for Government
Rape Crisis Ireland welcomes the new Government’s commitment to the continued prioritisation of tackling Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and the full implementation of the Zero Tolerance Strategy.
Many of the measures promised will capitalise on reforms to date and ensure these opportunities translate into a real difference that survivors can feel. Changes to reduce delay in the justice process will have significant impact for survivors. Changes such as more judges and capacity in our courts, with ‘a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system within 12 months and publish an action plan to improve efficiency, remove blockages and cut waiting times.’ Secondly, there is a raft of very welcome measures to digitise and make accessible and transparent the activity of the system for survivors. For decades, one of the most difficult parts for survivors engaged with the justice system was waiting to hear about their case during the long-delayed process. The promise to ‘Introduce an online facility for victims to obtain information on the status of their case’ will potentially transform survivors’ relationship to the process.
This Government also promises to turn its attention to sentencing, lifting unjustly low ceilings on some crimes and increasing powers on creating sentencing guidelines.
RCI strongly welcomes the commitment to ‘ensuring comprehensive support services for victims’ within the criminal justice system and trusts that this means that survivors will soon be able to avail of specialist accompaniment when they need it, no matter where they live in the country, and that access to support services will not entail long waiting times.
We welcome the focus on prioritising the ‘implementation of the e-evidence package, including the establishment of a new agency, to make it easier and faster for law enforcement and judicial authorities to obtain the electronic evidence they need to investigate and eventually prosecute criminals.’ This challenge is already a reality within investigations that needs urgent attention. However, such measures must not only consider, but lead with, the rights, privacy and dignity of the victim, if they are to deliver ultimately on justice. RCI is committed to supporting the Government to find solutions to this urgent and dynamic challenge.
RCI also particularly welcomes the commitment to ensuring ‘proper regulation and funding for Voice of the Child and Welfare Reports, giving children a voice in legal proceedings that affect them’ as a key component of ensuring children experiencing domestic and sexual violence in the home can be heard and protected within our systems.
On a note of caution: while RCI welcomes the promise to ‘amend laws on counselling notes disclosure’, it is unclear to us what that would be. It is vitally important that we do not rush to amend laws that may unintentionally further disimprove the situation for survivors of sexual violence in relation to their privacy and right to seek and access support. We urge a considered and comprehensive approach.
The Government has committed to ‘make the criminal justice system more victim-centred’. To deliver on that, the Government must make a fundamental commitment to uphold survivors’ rights, not in balance with a defendants’, but simply as a matter of Right.
