Victim Rights in the New Afghan Criminal Procedure Code (Art. 6) (Dari)

Abstract

Victimisation is an important aspect of the post-crime situation. In the tradi- tional criminal justice, the crime and the victim from the focal point of criminal policy-making and attract most of the attention of relevant executors. How- ever, the victim is easily forgotten and only paid attention in the course of the implementation of justice. Victimisation and the extensive impacts of the crime on the victim justify the existence of a set of rights for the victim and hence a set of duties for the criminal justice system (and, beyond that, for the relevant therapeutic, educa- tional, social, etc. organisations). A proper response to the crime is therefore not possible to be made without observing the victims' rights and meeting their needs. This article first investigates, in general, the impacts of the crime on the victim and the rights of the victim and then considers, specifically, the Afghan legal system and its capacities to realize those rights. The major proposal of the present article is that, considering the existing capacities of the Afghan crimi- nal justice system, it is necessary to codify and enact an exhaustive Victims' Rights Act and to establish relevant organisations based on that.