On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the National Service for Legal Representation of the Rights of the Victim (Relevic), the deputy attorney yeni berenice advocated reinforcing the responses of the State to protect and compensate people who go to the Justice after being affected by different types of crimes.
According to a press release, Reynoso, who heads the General Directorate for the Persecution of Public ministryrecognized the relevance of the guarantees enshrined in the Code of Criminal Procedure for persons charged with crimes and offenses, which contrasted with the need for greater mechanisms to protect the rights of those who suffer for the acts that are judged.
“Victims need a decision within a reasonable time, which will not return them to the state prior to the injury to the legal interest, but which will at least give the satisfaction that the Justice listened to them and gave them an answer according to their rights”, he expressed, when giving the conference “The rights of the victims: a look at the Justice restorative”.
Relevic was created in 2007 with the aim of providing free legal assistance to victims of criminal offenses who lack the financial solvency to pay for the services of a private lawyer. The entity has offices in the National District, Santo Domingo, San Pedro de Macorís and San Francisco de Macorís.
Leading the commemoration of its fifteenth anniversary, during a ceremony held in the event hall of the Supreme Court of Justicethe director of Relevic, Alba Corona Valerio, stressed that the service ensures that victims have decent representation before the courts and highlighted the effort made by each of the organization’s collaborators.
“They are educated and trained professionals, but, above all, very sensitive to the issue of victims,” he said at the opening of the act in which they were, in addition to the director of Persecution, María Rosalba Díaz, a member of the Superior Council of the Public ministry; José Monteiro, director of the International Mission of Justiceand José Ceballos, executive director of the Community Houses Center of Justice.
In his conference, Reynoso gave theft as an example. He said that it is the second most reported crime that affects direct victims and the third most prosecuted. However, he expressed that it is one of the offenses that receives the fewest convictions in the Dominican Republic, due to the lack of effective protection of the rights of the victims.
“This lack of restorative justice, we find it in article 31 of the Criminal Procedure Code, since, as a State persecution policy, we only have public action for robberies if there is violence and if there are weapons”Associate Attorney
Reynoso pointed out that when there is no restoration of the fact, a full reintegration into society is not achieved, so Relevic, through its work, contributes to the humanization of the Justice.
In this regard, he explained that in a criminal proceeding the representative of the Public ministry who is leading the accusation does not have the power to request compensation, which requires the victim to have legal assistance.
Before prosecutors, representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Spanish cooperation, the Public Defender’s Office, judges and civil society entities who gathered in the auditorium of the Supreme Court of JusticeCorona Valerio raised the need to expand the alternatives of the Justice restorative.
“It is necessary that we think of a model of Justice different, not like Public ministrybut in an integral way, we are going to dare to make a paradigm shift, with a more human look.
