ABSTRACT
The reform of domestic victim rights frameworks toward regional and international standards may be one of the identifiers of the twenty-first-century movement towards redressing the wrongs occasioned to victims as vulnerable members of society. However, localised attempts to reposition the victim in justice and trial processes are highly variable, and have been met with mixed success. Although international convention seeking a new role for the victim may best afford legal and policy change where a member state or country ratifies the convention consistent with the original instrument, pressure from the international community may see certain reforms emerge, even where states do not ratify convention rights directly. International norms, without direct ratification into law, may also be adopted in local policy. The development of victim interests in law and policy therefore emerge through different mechanisms with regard to different pressures and priorities, according to the legal and political contexts of local jurisdictions. Significant here is the realisation that victims deserve rights and powers that position them as stakeholders of law and justice, and as important to the justice process generally.
