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Witness Protection

Experience from the ICTR and ICTY strongly suggests that witnesses, both victim and non-victim, face serious security, psychological, and physical challenges related to their appearance in court.  Child witnesses and victims of gender based crimes require especially sensitive treatment due to the particular trauma and alienation that they may have suffered.  Basic support and counseling services and protective measures, from the commencement of an investigation through trial and post-trial, are necessary to ensure effective participation and the physical and psychological well-being of witnesses. 

Locating the Special Court in Sierra Leone – along with the court’s tight budget – present challenges for the protection of witnesses not faced by the ICTY and the ICTR.  The threat of being identified and/or located is obviously much greater.  According to Special Court staff, witnesses also have expressed greater concerns that family and dependents will be at risk due to their testimony than as compared to witnesses at the ICTR.¹²³

The Witness and Victims Support Unit is implementing measures described below to ensure witness protection.  Nevertheless, as discussed in the introduction, Human Rights Watch is concerned that the Protection Unit lacks sufficient resources and skilled staff to ensure that witnesses receive “relevant support, counseling and other appropriate assistance, including medical assistance, physical and psychological rehabilitation, especially in cases of rape, sexual assault, and crimes against children” as required under SCSL Rule 34.  Measures are also needed to ensure witness protection after the court ceases operations.

A. The Protection Unit

Pursuant to Article 16 of the SCSL Statute, the registrar has set up the Witnesses and Victims Support Unit (Protection Unit) to provide “protective measures and security arrangements, counseling and other appropriate assistance for witnesses, victims who appear before the Court and others who are at risk on account of testimony given by such witnesses.”

The Protection Unit is employing a variety of initiatives to implement protection.  It has relocated a small number of witnesses outside the country and is also providing protection to witnesses internally at “safe houses.”  Additionally, the unit keeps a psychologist on staff and Special Court staff report that more than a hundred witnesses are seeking this support.¹²⁴ 

However, Human Rights Watch was told that Protection Unit staff have behaved in a manner that has undermined protection in some instances, including by failing to follow-up when a witness raised concerns that the witness was being followed.¹²⁵  Special Court staff also raised concerns about the ability of the Protection Unit to handle what was expected to be a growing number of witnesses needing protection during trial.¹²⁶  Special Court staff commented that the unit is “doing okay, for [the] money,”¹²⁷ but that it was not quite prepared.¹²⁸ 

Additionally, the physical layout of the court raises concerns, as the Special Court premises which house the court building, the detention facility, the OTP, the Registry, and the Defense Office has one single entrance through which all visitors, including witnesses and persons visiting the accused, must pass.¹²⁹  As such, those visiting an accused, an OTP investigator, or the press unit wait to be cleared by security in a single waiting room.  This arrangement clearly undermines protection and should be addressed immediately.  We understand that a new entrance for the court premises is in the process of being constructed.¹³⁰  We urge that a separate entrance for persons visiting the accused be immediately set up to avoid potential trauma or security threats resulting from direct contact by family and visitors of the accused with prosecution witnesses.

Human Rights Watch urges the Registry to work with the Protection Unit to identify where lack of resources for the Protection Unit may be compromising its ability to effectively attain its mandate and to advocate for funding of these resources.  Human Rights Watch further urges the Management Committee to support these allocations and for donors to fund them.  Human Rights Watch also urges the Registry to coordinate training of Protection Unit staff to ensure that protection is adequate, specifically on providing sufficient information to witnesses, following through on witness concerns, and operating in a way that does not betray the identity of witnesses. 

B. The Witness Management Unit

The OTP has established a Witness Management Unit within its office that can help contribute to protection of witnesses through enhanced coordination between the OTP and the Protection Unit on witness treatment.  We understand that the unit was established in part over concerns about the effectiveness of the Protection Unit, but also due to a desire to ensure that witnesses experienced a “seamless transition” between contact with the OTP during an investigation and receiving assistance from the Protection Unit.¹³¹  The Witness Management Unit undertook a confirmation process prior to the commencement of trials in which they contacted the majority of witnesses to confirm their testimony, assess possible security threats, and identify witnesses in need of protection.  The Management Unit conducted the confirmation exercise in conjunction with the Protection Unit, including staff to provide psychosocial support.¹³² 

C. Protection Post-trial

The Special Court will have a very limited duration, and the need for witness protection will far outlast its existence.  A key contribution to ensuring witness protection long-term would be through the establishment of a domestic witness protection unit to oversee protection of Special Court witnesses once the court completes operations.¹³³ 

In addition to the crucial need for witnesses to enjoy long-term protection, there are concerns regarding the ability to resettle and otherwise adequately protect several “insider” witnesses for the prosecution who have themselves committed war crimes.  An incident in the early half of 2004, in which a key “insider” witness in the case against the AFRC was nearly beaten to death, illustrates the risks these individuals will face following trial.¹³⁴  The incident occurred after the witness ignored admonishments to stay inside his safe house by Protection Unit staff.¹³⁵  These risks to witnesses are of particular concern given Sierra Leone’s history of political instability and the current deficiencies of both the Sierra Leonean police and Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, noted in the March 2004 assessment report by the U.N. Security Council.¹³⁶

Efforts to establish a domestic witness protection unit to provide long-term protection are underway.  The Protection Unit is already training Sierra Leonean police working in the Protection Unit, and there are plans to train additional Sierra Leonean police to work in a domestic protection unit.¹³⁷  We urge donors to provide funding to make this initiative operational, through adequate support for materials and logistical equipment.