Why India Needs a Victim and Witness Protection Law

Expand Clasped hands of a victim of sexual violence in India.  A 22-year-old Dalit woman from Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh, reported being raped in January 2016. The police were reluctant to act because the man accused was a local leader of a political party with powerful caste affiliations. Finally, after she went to court in March 2016, a judge ordered the police to file a First Information Report (FIR) to begin the investigation. But without proper protection, the woman and her husband had to flee the village and move hundreds of kilometers away after repeated threats and harassment…

© Human Rights Watch - samedi 20 janvier 2018