Penang-based Women Centre for Change (WCC) made the recommendation today during the launch of its “Standing With Sexual Crime Victims: WCC Support Services” report today.
“We have different groups and agencies providing victim support (for sexual crime victims), such as the social welfare department (JKM), police, NGOs, and the legal aid department.
“We need to have an integrated victim support system, and we need a task force to oversee its establishment,” WCC consultant Prema Devaraj said when presenting the report.
She said this national task force needed to have the authority to coordinate both state and federal agencies besides ensuring financial and human resources are allocated for this endeavour.
“With such a task force, we would be able to work towards the understanding of victim support and advocacy across the country through forums, conferences and seminars.
“In the long term, we will be working towards setting a standard for a nationwide victim support system and advocacy in the criminal justice system,” Prema said.
WCC also made four recommendations to the government:
- Monitoring and evaluating the existing victim support mechanism, such as legislation (victim impact statements, protection orders), and two special courts set up to handle cases of sexual crimes against children;
- Documenting the outcome and impact of victim support services in sexual crime cases; and,
- Conducting specialised training on victim support together with criminal justice personnel.
WCC said the NGO had provided victim support services in 118 sexual crime cases, from 2015 till 2019.
These services were provided by its staff in both one-stop crisis centres in hospitals and in the criminal justice system. At times, watching brief lawyers augmented the services.
Out of the 118 cases, 86 went to trial and 57 of them were completed. The remaining 29 are still ongoing or on appeal.
In the 57 completed and closed cases, 60% were successful, with the perpetrators pleading guilty and convicted. In the remaining 40% of cases, the accused were acquitted or given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.