Protection and support of terrorism victims in the criminal proceedings in Kosovo: The compliance with standards of the Madrid Memorandum

Abstract

Victims of terrorism can be considered a special category within the broader and more general group of “victims of crime”. In recent decades, there has been an international trend to develop more specific treatment, both in legal and practical terms, to address their particular needs in unfortunate times of intensification and sophistication of terrorist attacks, with a correlative increase in the harmful consequences for an increasing number of victims of terrorism. At the international level, one such instrument is the Madrid Memorandum, which contains relevant guidelines that serve as a reference for States, who can draw inspiration from them when designing their national standards of protection and support for victims of terrorism. This paper aims to critically analyze the legal framework applicable in Kosovo on the issue of protection and support of victims of terrorism from the pre-trial phase, through criminal proceedings, and after the completion of criminal proceedings, with special emphasis aiming to analyze the compliance of these rules with standards of the Madrid Memorandum. The paper identifies three areas in which the applicable legal framework for the protection and support of victims of terrorism in criminal proceedings needs to be harmonised with the Madrid Memorandum’s standards.