Statement by Wendy Lobwein, support officer at Victims and Witnesses Unit, ICTY

I am very pleased to be able to be here and to meet with you, and I give my thanks to the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice for inviting me. I know you have been studying the Rome Statue and giving consideration to the Rules of Evidence and Procedure for the ICC for a long period of time. I have come to describe some of the experiences of the Victim and Witness Section (VWS) of the ICTY in the hope it can add to your deliberations.

I want to tell you a little about how the VWS has developed, how it looks now and the direction we are taking with new and emerging issues – some of these issues I know you are already dealing with in the Rules of Evidence and Procedure.

When I came to the ICTY in November 1995, as the first Support Officer for the VWS, the Section had four posts; a Coordinator of the Unit, a Support Officer, a Protection Officer and a Secretarial position. When I try to imagine how the decision was made to select such posts back in the conceptual stages of creating the Victim and Witness Unit, I can visualize the thought and concern that was given to the need for protection and support for witnesses who were to testify in an International Court, bringing stories of almost unimaginable horror. The need for these protection and support programs has been critical in facilitating the testimony of witnesses. What was not envisaged however, was the enormous and overwhelming logistical requirements necessary to bring witnesses from more than thirty different countries to The Hague, and then to be returned safely to their country of residence. Almost without exception, witnesses were without identity documents, passports, legally valid residential permits, or means of obtaining such documents.

Each different country of residence outside the territories of the former Yugoslavia has a separate set of administrative processes which must be adhered to in order to obtain the necessary permits allowing the exit and re-entry of witnesses from that country in a manner which prevents witnesses from losing any rights or entitlements in that country of residence. For witnesses residing within the territories of the former Yugoslavia we had to find ways of ensuring that identification documents could be created, documents which are necessary so that passports could be obtained, passports which are necessary so that visa’s could be issued, visa’s which are necessary so that travel to The Hague could take place, and so on. These procedures had to developed within the structures of countries whose administrative processes were still shattered from the war, and they had to be developed in a manner which protected the privacy and the safety of the individual witnesses who undertook the enormous task of traveling to The Hague to testify before a Trial Chamber of the ICTY. The years 1996 and 1997, the first two years of Trials for the ICTY, the work of VWS was directed towards ensuring that the witnesses called to testify were able to do so, by developing the contacts, the policies and procedures which would allow their safe and supported movement from their place of residence to The Hague and return.

Throughout the enormous workload of sorting out these logistical arrangements we constantly learned from witnesses, and we began to tackle some of the critical issues of support and protection which needed attention. One of my tasks was to listen to the witnesses and identify any areas that appeared to be a barrier preventing a witness from testifying, and work to find a solution to overcome that barrier. Out of this work emerged a framework of support programs that I have attempted to weave together with the protection programs in an effort to develop a comprehensive and seamless service. We learned that support and information for witnesses has to begin as early as possible and that some issues which are of critical concern to witnesses are often not what is imagined by many, such as that many of our witnesses in the early stages of their preparation are much more anxious about the thought of air travel than the thought of taking the witness stand.

Now in 1999 we have a much larger staff of twenty-one. In addition to the four posts I described earlier, we have a Liaison Officer who has taken charge of many of the logistical arrangements, we have three Field Assistants who travel to the places of residence of the witnesses and escort them to and from The Hague, we have two Driver/Clerks who provide safe local transportation between the airports and the courts and who monitor the transcripts of the court sessions to identify potential security risks. We have four Administrative Assistants who deal with the daily management of obtaining witness lists from the Prosecution and the Defence, and preparing the witnesses for travel, including handling the witnesses travel arrangements, financial requirements, accommodation, court and legal scheduling appointments, and maintaining the VWS database and files. We have recently been allocated a Legal Advisor who will be developing the Sections responsibilities in legal issues. And, of special relevance to the Support program of the VWS, we have obtained seven contract posts for Witness Assistants. The Witness Assistants provide our twenty-four hour live-in program of support and care to witnesses while they are in The Hague. In addition, the VWS is currently in the recruitment process to obtain our second Support Officer and our second Protection Officer.

In a brief summary I will outline the major components of the VWS Support Program;

1. Information to witnesses, including a brochure in Bosnian/Croat/Serbian/and currently being translated into Albanian. We have just prepared the first witness information video which will soon be released. In particularly sensitive cases the Support and Protection Officers and Witness Assistants will meet with witnesses prior to travel for personal briefings and preparation.
2. Briefing and escorted travel for witnesses by the VWS Field Assistants. Female staff members will escort women witnesses testifying to crimes of sexual violence.
3. The Witness Assistant program. The 24-hour live-in program for witnesses while they are in The Hague. These Assistants are provided with monthly de-briefing and consultation from a Consultant Psychologist to assist them in their work. They have recently completed a three-day training program in supporting women witnesses testifying to crimes of sexual violence.
4. Travel/Medical/Public Liability Insurance. Many of the witnesses appearing before the ICTY are suffering from poor health. All witnesses are offered the opportunity to consult with medical practitioners while in The Hague.
5. Psychological and Psychiatric support. The VWS has negotiated consultants and services from Netherlands networks.
6. Comfortable accommodation and appropriate food in a range of locations selected for service and security reasons.
7. Provision of a Witness Daily Allowance for incidental costs.
8. Compensation for Lost Wages, including payment to those witnesses who are self-employed or cannot obtain certification from employers for security or privacy reasons.
9. ChildCare Policy. There are provisions for supporting children in the place of residence during the absence of the parent, or accompanying the parent.
10. Accompanying Support Person Policy.
11. Dependent Persons Policy. There are provisions for supporting dependent persons in the place of residence during the absence of the Carer, or accompanying the Carer.
12. In Draft: specific policy guiding the services to Women Witnesses testifying to crimes of sexual violence.
13. In Draft: VWS Witness Entitlements Statement.
14. In progress: working on specific policies guiding services to youth and to the aged.

The VWS now has a solid basis for performing the duties required for the Court by enabling witnesses to travel safely and with administrative ease to The Hague. We are able to care for and protect witnesses during their stay in The Hague. Our protection programs, which I will not be able to describe during this time with you, have the capacity to institute protection services prior to testifying, during testifying, and after testifying for as long as is required.

It is from this base that we are beginning to address other critical and newly emerging issues.

For the Support program of the VWS, our intent is to focus attention on exploring our responsibilities to witnesses in the areas of preparation of victim/witnesses before testimony and follow-up services to victim/witnesses after testimony. There is debate about the levels and limits of the VWS’s role in these areas and we will examine the needs and expectations of witnesses and the responsibilities of the ICTY, to determine an intersection that meets the support needs of witnesses.

The issue of “privilege” is being discussed at this conference. The VWS will be giving attention to this issue as it effects our Support Officers as Counselors to witnesses while they are in The Hague and to the Witness Assistants in their role of twenty-four hour support staff.

Newly emerging for the VWS is the issue of independent legal advice for witnesses. This is particularly relevant as increasingly witnesses are being summoned by the Trial Chambers and are appearing as Court witnesses, rather than witnesses for the Prosecution or the Defence. Our Legal Advisor is exploring this area, in addition to exploring the role of the VWS in equipping witnesses with the information and legal advice necessary for the future pursuit of compensation/restitution claims.

In conclusion I want to tell you about a new project that the VWS is taking up in conjunction with the RCT (Copenhagen Torture and Trauma Centre) with the support of funding from the European Commission. We will be jointly developing a two-year research project with the twin aims of finding a means for witnesses themselves to evaluate the current services of the VWS, and to learn from witnesses more about their needs and expectations of the VWS and the ICTY. Frequently I wonder, and frequently I am asked, why do witnesses come to testify? From the anecdotes of the hundreds and hundreds of witnesses who have presented themselves and their testimonies to the ICTY Trial Chambers, I have learned that witnesses come for reasons that seem to fit into four main areas;

To speak for the dead,
To look for justice in the present,
To help the truth be known by the world,
In the hope that such crimes can be prevented in the future.

The witnesses give their reasons much more eloquently than I can convey and I hope at the end of the research project to be able to present to you and your colleagues in the International Community, the words of the witnesses themselves.