The government is expected to approve the establishment of a commission for the rights of crime victims

A commission for the rights of crime victims will be established in the Ministry of Justice, according to a proposal that the government is expected to approve tomorrow (Sunday). According to the proposal, the new commission will be committed to making rights and excellence accessible to victims of criminal offenses, primarily victims of sexual offenses. The establishment of the commission will be budgeted for approximately NIS 7.8 million from the Ministry of Justice’s budget. Also according to the proposal, the government will appoint a commissioner as its head.

There is currently no body in Israel that includes the treatment of crime victims, accompanies them in the criminal process, makes their rights accessible to victims and victims and accompanies them with excellence in the various authorities. The proposal is based on the recommendations of the inter-ministerial committee to examine the treatment of sexual offenses in the criminal procedure headed by retired judge Deborah Berliner, which were published about four years ago.

According to the proposal, the commission will personally accompany each victim in the criminal proceedings and will take care of all their needs relevant to the offense and the exhaustion of their rights. The document also proposes that the new commission work to promote the rights of crime victims and improve government service for victims, establish a coordination mechanism between the authorities – police, prosecutor’s office, legal aid, social security and any other authority that handles the victim and his rights – and establish a computerized system that will centralize the treatment of victims and the relationship with them, establish A dedicated website and call center and conduct ongoing research on the subject.

In the proposal, it is emphasized that the term “victims of a crime” will apply to those who are directly injured by a criminal offense, but also to family members of victims whose death the offense caused (for example, murder), with the exception of the suspect, the accused or the convicted, that is, not in the case where the perpetrator of the offense is a family member of the victim . It is also proposed that among the employees of the new commission, officials will be appointed who will have a designated specialization according to the types of offenses, for example sexual offenses.

The legal advisor to the Ministry of Justice, Adv. Leah Rekober, states in the proposed resolution that following the events of October 7, which left a very large number of victims, the need to establish a body that will centralize and integrate their treatment becomes acute.