ABSTRACT
Scholars and jurists who have considered how victim participation and reparations can be understood as an implementation of human rights most frequently link them to the right to a remedy. The advent of victim participation and reparations in international criminal proceedings is often positioned as a victory for victims’ human rights. The right to a remedy is closely linked to an obligation on states to effectively investigate serious criminal acts. Significantly, human rights bodies have held that this obligation to investigate can arise even where a crime is committed by non-state actors. Recognition by human rights bodies of some entitlements for victims to participate in criminal proceedings has rightly been viewed by victims’ advocates as an advance. Procedural controls on victim participation go well beyond than this, since judges may prevent or limit any proposed instance of participation on the basis that it is contrary to the rights of the defence.
