Isn't it generally victim/accused and society/accused? Victim/society doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Anyway.
Both victims and accused have several legal and customary rights.
The doctrine of natural justice is in place to generally ensure that the accused is recieves a fair and just trial. Rights granted by this doctrine include:
The right to answer any accusations;
The right to cross examination, and;
The right for any previous criminal record not to be raised.
The adverserial system can be seen to be favouring the accused for several reasons:
The purpose of an adverserial trial is to determine a "winner", not to investigate the truth;
An inalienable right is to be considered innocent until proven guilty;
The fact that only one (or two, since the Juries (Majority Verdicts) Amendment Act was passed) jurors have to be swayed for the accused to be unable to be found guilty.
The rights of victims, however, have been increased in recent years, particularly in the area of sexual assault. This has caused some complaint as it can be argued that other, violent crimes, deserve equal protection to what sexual assault offences do, however it can be seen that moral influences on the law protecting victims of sexual assault and children have increased this protection.
Lobbying by groups such as the Victims of Crime Assistance League (VOCAL) has led to amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act, removing the right of a self represented litigant to cross examine the complainant in a sexual assault case, and the Evidence Act, allowing children to give evidence in narrative form, via CCTV if appropriate, unless the interests of justice require otherwise.
All victims have the right to make a Victims Impact Statement if the accused is found guilty, and mandatory (minimunm) sentencing aims to ensure justice is achieved for the victim.
These amendments are steps in the right direction to addressing the imbalance in rights between victims and accused however they protect only a small amount of victims or occur only if a guilty verdict is reached. It is therefore obvious that a proper balance does not currently exist between the rights of the accused and victims.
Assess the effectiveness of non-legal measures in addressing
human rights issues.
markers like cool sounding legal terms.
