EUROPEAN STANDARDS OF THE INSTITUTE OF SAFETY OF PARTICIPANTS IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The article analyzes the European standards of the institute for ensuring the safety of participants in criminal proceedings and compares it with the legislative provisions of this institute in Ukraine. It was established that the legislation of Ukraine declares the recognition, observance and protection of human and citizen rights and freedoms as the duty of the state. The protection of human rights in the criminal process cannot be considered separately from the criminal and criminal procedural policy of the state, which is an integral part of the legal policy of any democratic society. The author emphasizes that one of the manifestations of the state protection of the constitutional rights to life, liberty and personal integrity is ensuring the safety of the citizen in the field of criminal proceedings. In connection with the fact that the problem of unlawful influence on witnesses, victims, judges, prosecutors, investigators, inquirers, their relatives and close persons has become particularly acute, measures were taken at the legislative level to strengthen the state protection of these persons, which were reflected in the norms of special legal acts. On the basis of the conducted research, it was established that the Federal Republic of Germany developed and adopted the Law “On Regulation of Issues of Ensuring the Protection of Witnesses Who Are Threatened with Danger”. The law establishes that security measures may be applied to witnesses who give or may give important testimony for the purpose of establishing the truth in particularly serious crimes, as well as to their relatives and loved ones, if their life, health, or well-being are in danger. The mentioned law provides for the implementation of the Witness Protection Program, which establishes the regime of secrecy regarding the personal data of protected persons, as well as the possibility of their relocation to another place of residence. A study of the experience of other foreign countries regarding the standards of this institute was also conducted and the possibilities of their implementation on the territory of our country were determined. It was concluded that despite the significant financial support of the state program for ensuring the safety of witnesses in European countries and a significant array of cases of its application, the level of ensuring the safety of participants in criminal proceedings and the degree of trust in law enforcement agencies remain at a rather low level, which results in the reluctance of sub entities to provide the data necessary for the investigation.