Principled Permission for Crime Victims to Access and Copy Trial Records
The Presidential Commission on National Integration proposed on the 21st that an integrated phone number for counseling and reporting should be introduced to provide rapid relief to victims amid the recent surge in digital sex crime cases.
The political and regional subcommittees under the Commission announced at the Government Seoul Complex on the same day that the digital sex crime counseling number should be unified as '1336' and that policies to expand 'warm judicial services' to strengthen the rights protection of crime victims are necessary.
The Commission pointed out that to promptly assist the rapidly increasing number of digital sex crime victims each year, a representative integrated counseling and reporting number should be introduced, and online counseling channels should also be unified. They explained that rapid relief for victims, considering the characteristics of digital sex crimes such as preventing the early spread of video distribution, is urgent.
Currently, digital sex crime counseling and reporting are individually operated by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and four metropolitan cities/provinces including Seoul, Busan, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. They suggested integrating these into the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's year-round 24-hour 'Women’s Emergency Hotline 1366' and establishing a collaborative system among institutions by jointly utilizing the victim video deletion support systems that are separately operated by each agency.
They also called for establishing an international cooperation system centered on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to delete victim videos on overseas sites, and the Commission decided to prepare and provide a 'Government Common Illegal Video Deletion Request Official Document Form.'
Furthermore, to strengthen the rights to information access for crime victims who are 'parties to the case' but not 'litigants' during investigation and trial processes and are thus marginalized, they proposed that crime victims be allowed to view and copy trial records in principle. If access is denied, the reasons and grounds should be specified, and an appeal procedure allowing objections should be established.
They also requested improvements to the system to address the issue where victims of sexual violence and others can use pseudonyms (anonymity) during criminal justice procedures but cannot check the progress of investigations on the criminal justice portal, thereby improving restrictions on information access.
Currently, the public defender system is supported only for some crime victims, but they suggested expanding it to victims of serious violent crimes and updating the remuneration for dedicated public defenders for crime victims, which has been frozen for 12 years.
Kim Han-gil, Chairman of the National Integration Commission, said, "I hope this proposal will serve as an opportunity to provide comprehensive and broad judicial service support to resolve the grievances of crime victims," adding, "The Commission will continue to strive to establish systems that alleviate women's anxiety and grievances and improve overall quality of life."
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