On The Protection Of The Rights Of Criminal Witnesses

Witness in criminal behavior is a product of the judicial process, and is the requirement of a nomocracy society. Witness is the subject of criminal Witness behavior, He or she is the People whose work is to supervise and certification in investigate such as inquest, inspections or search and seizure, and other Litigation activities, and he or she is unrelated to the case. Witness is a subject with unique features in a class of criminal proceedings, it is important for the protection of private rights, the constraints of public power and the prevention from miscarriages of justice. Under the procedural justice, procedure’s open and transparency require the criminal witness system, then function of criminal witness depends on the protection of the rights of witnesses. Protection the rights of witnesses is an important aspect of the system of criminal Witness, it has a wide range of value targets, but protecting the rights of witnesses has been overlooked in academic researchs. For the system of witness, there are three choices all around the world:Forced Witness, Freedom Witness, and Exclusion of Witness. Combined with China’s national conditions and the pros and cons of each witness system, it should establish a forced witness system in China, set witnesses in an important position, and then it will be more conducive to realize the protection of witnesses rights. Because of this, can the witness system function effectively. Though the protection of witnesses’ rights is so meaningfull, China’s current criminal witness legislation is rather rough due to some legal traditions including power standard, obligations standard, and valuing entity more than procedure. The protection of the rights of witnesses barely involved. Witnesses’legal status is unknown, right content is uncertain, and with no legal remedy after the infringement, all these problems lead investigative powers considerably above the rights of witnesses, witnesses are useless. The supervision of investigative activities is so weak resulting in a lack of escorting for procedural justice. For current situation, whether to meet the needs of effectiveness of testimony behavioral, or to achieve the purpose of program legitimacy, and or to adapt the principle of statutory procedures, all need us to pay attention to protect the rights of witnesses in criminal legislation. Protecting the rights of the witness is significant for improving the witness system, protecting criminal witness’ function, preventing miscarriages of justice and for maintenancing procedures’ fairness and justice. So legislation should define the nature of criminal witness, clarify the legal status and rights of witnesses, and strengthen the supervision of the investigation right, establish a relief system of witnesses’ rights. Implement the rights of witnesses at last.