Standing with survivors of sexual violence
Women’s NGO launches its victim support services report, providing recommendations for a more effective and integrated support system for survivors of sexual violence.
THE Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) Penang recently launched its victim support services report Standing With Sexual Crime Victims: WCC Support Services.
The report shows, among other things, how victim support is crucial in helping women and children who have experienced violence find access to justice.
“The report documents over 10 years of WCC’S support services for victims of sexual crimes to access justice, and provides recommendations towards a more effective and integrated support system for these victims,” says chair of the WCC advocacy working committee Lalitha Menon.
The Standing With Sexual Crime Victims: WCC Support Services
report is sponsored by the German Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
“Sexual and gender-based violence is a growing problem all over the world. Many of us participated in the UN campaign of 16 days of activism against sexual and gender-based violence,” says Dr David Krivanek, Deputy Head Mission, German Embassy Kuala Lumpur.
“We all have a role to play in creating a culture of respect, defending women’s rights and ending sexual and gender-based violence. It is up to all of us to build a world that is safer, fairer and more equal for women and girls,” he says.
According to Lalitha, WCC’S 10-year-effort through the provision of victim support services, training of agencies, organising inter-agency dialogues, production of resources, as well as documentation, research and advocacy shows that it is possible to make remarkable changes in survivors’ lives and their access to justice.
“If such victim support services are replicated across the country, many survivors of sexual violence and their families navigating the criminal justice system will find their journey less traumatic and justice served,” she says.
Supporting women
WCC consultant Prema Devaraj says that victim support services is very necessary and will help prevent victim attrition in the criminal justice system.
“Survivors often drop out due to the shame and stigma associated with being a victim of sexual crime, and also secondary victimisation where they are additionally distressed because of, firstly, the way agencies and individuals inside and outside the criminal justice system treat them (with disbelief, victim blaming and insensitive questioning), and secondly, they’re negatively affected by the process (with delays, lack of support, hostile questioning, failure to explain legal proceedings and repeated exposure to accused),” says Prema.
Victim support services provided by WCC include emotional support and counselling, providing referrals for healing or therapy, basic information on their rights, assistance in lodging police reports and seeking medical assistance, liaising with the relevant agencies on case status, legal support such as arranging for watching brief lawyers, and court support including briefing them on procedures/processes and accompanying them for pre-trial briefings and court
trials.
Research reveals several benefits of victim support, including increasing the survivor’s confidence, improving their attendance in court, improved the quality of their testimony and impact statements, and improving court outcomes, says Latitha.
“We’ve assessed the impact of WCC’S victim support services by analysing data between 2015 and 2019, comparing this with data from our earlier Seeking Justice for Victims of Sexual Crime study in 2009. Despite research limitations, the key findings were promising, showing an increased conviction rate and a decreased discharge not amounting to an acquittal rate for cases where survivors were supported,” she says. WCC provided victim support in 118 sexual crime cases between 2015 and 2019. Out of the 118, the perpetrator was charged in 86 (72.9%) cases. By end of Dec 2019, 57 cases were closed with the trial completed, while 18 were still ongoing and 11 were on appeal.
The 57 closed sexual crime cases included incest (8), rape (5), statutory rape (27), statutory rape and sodomy (2), sodomy (4), molestation (10) and sexual harassment (1). And, 91.2% (52) were female, 89.5% (51) were below 18 years old, 50.8% (29) were statutory rape, and 66.7% (38) were referred from the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC).
The latest study reveals that from these 57 closed cases, 60% were successfully prosecuted (pleaded guilty and convicted), 40% were discharged not amounting to acquittal and acquittals.
Comparison of court outcomes between the current and previous study reveals that WCC’S victim support services has slightly improved the situation with those pleading guilty and convicted after trial increasing to 42% (from 31.2%) and 17.5% (from 2.7%), while those acquitted and discharged not amounting to acquittal reduced to 10.5% (from 18%) and 30% (from 45.1%).
The conviction rate has also increased to 30.3% (10 convicted out of 33 cases) from 4% (12 convicted out of 302 cases) previously.
However, Dr Prema says that the improvement can’t just be credited to WCC’S victim support services alone as the entire scenario for sexual crime victims has changed for the better since 2005.
Recommendations
Dr Prema offers five recommendations for an effective victim support system: “monitor and evaluate existing victim support initiatives, document the outcome and impact of victim support in sexual crime cases, conduct specialised training on victims support, organise interagency dialogues on victim advocacy at state and national levels, and establish a national high-level task force for implementation of an integrated victim support system.
“For these recommendations to work, adequate funding from the government is needed,” she says.
Federal Court Judge Datuk Mary Lim say: “When compared to the earlier study of 2009, whether in relation to pleading guilty, securing convictions after trial, acquittals and even discharges not amounting to acquittal, the figures in the report show that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Lim however cautions that standing with the victims is not only about securing a conviction.
“The whole objective is to stand with and support the victim so that access to justice is effective,” she says.
“Consistent with its role and responsibility as a centre for women, WCC recognises that seeking justice for victms of sexual crime doesn’t end with seeing the offender in court but much more needs to be done. Survivors often relive the horror and trauma of the crime and face secondary victimization, and they need support in many areas,” she adds.
A high-level national taskforce on victim support and advocacy, involving stakeholders such as the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, the Malaysian Bar, NGOS, and other groups, is necessary to oversee the establishment of an integrated victim support system, says Dr Prema.
“Such a Taskforce is needed to coordinate among ministries, agencies and relevant groups at both state and national levels. This Taskforce needs to exist not just in name but also with sufficient power to ensure the allocation of adequate financial and human resources for the endeavor,” she says.
“Implementation and progress of all the recommendations require not just vision, but also political will, and an adequate budget,” she adds.
“In order for victim support and advocacy to be an effective and efficient reality in Malaysia, the commitments made must include a plan of action which is appropriately and adequately resourced both in terms of personnel and finance. Furthermore, there must be a mechanism to monitor the plan of action for accountability and to ensure the commitments are upheld,” she concludes.