scholarly journals Digitalization of the Initial Stage of Criminal Proceedings as a Necessary Means of Ensuring the Rights of Victims

Lex Russica ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
L. A. Voskobitova

The paper deals with the problems related to the protection and enforcement of the rights of the victim during acceptance, registration and examination of reports of crimes at the initial stage of criminal proceedings. The author substantiates the necessity of improving the practice of initiation of criminal proceedings, the judicial data for the purpose of precise implementation of Art. 52 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as proposals on digitalization at this stage of criminal proceedings. The author emphasizes that criminal proceedings should be considered as a uniform state power activity, beginning with a report on the committed crime and ending with the final resolution of all substantive and procedural issues arising in the case. In view of this, the process of digitalization of criminal proceedings should be based on a single platform linking not only all stages of the proceedings, but also officials of any of the departments carrying out certain phases of this activity. Such a platform should comply with the statutory framework, be accessible to all participants in the process whose rights and interests are affected by the activity under consideration. The platform should represent a flexible digital system that secures the secret of production with regard to some parameters, including investigatory privilege, protection of the honor and dignity of a person, his or her right to privacy, family and other secrets protected by law. But according to other parameters it should be accessible for the person involved in this proceeding, his advocate and representative. In addition, according to certain parameters complying with the law, this platform should also be accessible for other persons to conduct research and to summarize the practice of criminal proceedings in the past; for the media providing the public with access to information about the proceedings in certain cases or in the public debate on certain legal issues, and it should be available to enforce protection of human rights in the field of criminal proceedings, etc.

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402198975
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Carlin ◽  
Timothy Hellwig ◽  
Gregory J. Love ◽  
Cecilia Martínez-Gallardo ◽  
Matthew M. Singer

Public evaluations of the economy are key for understanding how citizens develop policy opinions and monitor government performance. But what drives economic evaluations? In this article, we argue the context in which information about the economy is distributed shapes economic perceptions. In high-quality information environments—where policies are transparent, the media is free, and political opposition is robust—mass perceptions closely track economic conditions. In contrast, compromised information environments provide openings for political manipulation, leading perceptions to deviate from business cycle fluctuations. We test our argument with unique data from eight Latin American countries. Results show restrictions on access to information distort the public’s view of economic performance. The ability of voters to sanction governments is stronger when democratic institutions and the media protect citizens’ access to independent, unbiased information. Our findings highlight the importance of accurate evaluations of the economy for government accountability and democratic responsiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Peter G. Neumann

Mini-editorial (PGN) 2020 was a crazy year, with all kinds of risks on display. As usual, many of the lessons noted in past issues of SEN and RISKS have been largely ignored, and failures continue to mirror events from the past that have long been discussed here. Issues such as safety, security, and reliability always seem to need more foresight than they receive. Y2K con- tinues to hit somewhere each New Year's Day, when short- term remediations that demanded periodic upgrading have been forgotten. (I suppose old COBOL code will still ex- ist in year 2100, when there may be ambiguities relating to dates that could be 21xx or 20xx (although 19xx is unlikely), and the narrow windowing xes will fail even more dramati- cally.) Election integrity continues to be a real concern, where we are caught in the crosshairs between computer systems and networks that are not meaningfully trustworthy or au- ditable, and the nontechnological risks are still pervasive from unbalanced redistricting, creative dysinformation, poli- tics, Citzens United, and foreign interference. We need non- partisan scrutiny and defense against would-be subverters to overcome potential attacks and inadvertent mistakes. In pres- ence of potential risks in every part of the process, a strong sense of risk-awareness is required by voters, election officials, and the media (both proactively and remedially, as needed).


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Glenn Schellenberg ◽  
Ellen Winner

the objective of this special issue of Music Perception, which includes contributions from researchers based in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the US, is to present the best new research on associations between music training and nonmusical abilities. Scholarly interest in associations between music training and nonmusical cognitive functioning has sparked much research over the past 15–20 years. The study of how far associations between music training and cognitive abilities extend, and whether such associations are more likely for some domains of cognition than for others, has theoretical relevance for issues of transfer, modularity, and plasticity. Unlike most other areas of scientific inquiry, there is parallel interest on the part of the public, the media, and educators who want to know if nonmusical intellectual and academic benefits are a welcome by-product of sending children to music lessons. Indeed, some educators and arts advocates justify music training in schools precisely because of these presumed and desired nonmusical associations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
THEOPHILUS SAVVAS

Robert Coover's 1977 novel The Public Burning is a dramatic re-presentation of the last three days of the lives of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Dubbed the “atomic spies” by the media, the Rosenbergs were accused of passing on the “secret” of the atomic bomb to the Russians. The sensational trial provoked widespread attention for its seeming encapsulation of the fault lines in American society opened up by anticommunism and the emergent Cold War. Found guilty, they were the first American nationals to be executed for espionage. This paper analyses the different narrative methods that Coover employs to re-present the past. In particular I focus on Coover's juxtaposition of a third-person, seemingly omniscient, narrator with the first-person narratological voice of then Vice President Richard Nixon. I suggest that we can best understand this not simply as providing objective and subjective versions of the event, as some critics have claimed, but rather as a distinction between history as chronicle (or what I call a synchronic method of history), and history as storytelling (or diachrony). Through this The Public Burning becomes not just a satirical critique of the specific political culture of the time, I contend, but, more fundamentally, a general exploration of the difficulties of reconstituting past events into knowledge. It is here, perhaps, where the novel's continuing relevance for today lies.


STADION ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Alan McDougall

On 15 April 1989, Liverpool FC played Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield in northern England. Catastrophic errors by the police and other organisations led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters, crushed against the perimeter fences on the Leppings Lane terrace. Though the horrific facts of the disaster were quickly and widely known, they were lost beneath another narrative, promoted by the police, numerous politicians, and large sections of the media. This narrative blamed the disaster on “tanked up yobs”: drunk and aggressive Liverpool supporters, who turned up late and forced their way into the ground. Over the subsequent years and decades, as Hillsborough campaigners vainly sought justice for the disaster’s victims in a series of trials and inquests, the destructive allegation remained in the public realm. It was reinforced by establishment dismissal of Liverpool as a “self-pity city”, home to a community incapable of accepting official verdicts or of leaving the past in the past. This essay uncovers the history of the myths of the Hillsborough disaster. It first shows how these myths were established - how false narratives, with powerful backers, shifted responsibility for the disaster from the police to supporters, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It then examines how these myths were embedded in public discourse - how Liverpool was demonised as an aggressively sentimental city where people refused to admit to “killing their own”. It finally analyses how these myths were overturned through research, media mobilisation, and grassroots activism, a process that culminated in the 2016 inquest verdict, which ruled that the 96 Hillsborough victims were unlawfully killed. In doing so, the essay shows how Hillsborough became a key event in modern British history, influencing everything from stadium design to government legislation.


Author(s):  
S. A. Kulikova

The main aspects of the protection of the rights of journalists by the Human Rights Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, presented in his reports from 1998 to 2019, are studied. It is revealed that the problem of violations of the rights of journalists was present in most of the reports of the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman considers attacks on them to obstruct the exercise of their professional duties, the termination of the activities of the media on grounds unforeseen by law, some forms of economic pressure on independent media, illegal restrictions on access to information, etc.It is concluded that the protection of the rights of journalists should remain one of the priority areas of the activities of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, the analysis of violations of the rights of journalists should be included in the section “Protection of the rights of certain categories of citizens.” To some extent, this proposal was embodied in the report of the Ombudsman in 2019, section 2.6 of which is designated as “Freedom of speech and protection of the rights of journalists”.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
L. A. Latysheva ◽  
◽  
D. S. Shcherbakova ◽  

The article analyzes the current problems of monitoring the activities of institutions and bodies that execute criminal sentences. In accordance with the Conception of the penal system of the Russian Federation development until 2020 one of the most important activities of the penal system is to create the necessary conditions for monitoring the activities of institutions and bodies that execute sentences. For this purpose it is required to ensure transparency in the activities of the penal system on the basis of wide involvement of civil society institutions in the process of execution of criminal sentences. The need for public control is also indicated by international regulations on the treatment of prisoners, primarily the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the European Prison Rules. At the same time at present the problems of public control are not sufficiently developed, in particular, the limits of the controlling influence on the penitentiary system by the public are not defined, there is no specific list of subjects of public control in this area, their powers are not defined. Based on the analysis of international regulatory legal acts Russian legislation, the activities of correctional institutions in the field of public control over the activities of institutions and bodies that execute sentences, the authors have prepared a number of recommendations to improve the current legislation and practice of its application. The article focuses on the need to carry out inspections by organizations that are not dependent on the prison system. For this purpose it is proposed to involve various public organizations, including non-governmental, as well as ombudsmen for human rights, for the rights of the child. It is important to expand cooperation with the media. The results of the article can be used in the educational process in the study of legal disciplines as well as for further researches in this area.


2009 ◽  
Vol 08 (04) ◽  
pp. L01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donato Ramani

The increasing number of magazine covers dedicated to brain studies and the success of magazines and scientific journals entirely dedicated to brain and mind indicate a strong interest on these themes. This interest is clearly surpassing the boundaries of scientific and medical researches and applications and underlines an engagement of the general public, too. This phenomenon appears to be enhanced by the increasing number of basic researches focusing on non-health-related fMRI studies, investigating aspects of personality as emotions, will, personal values and beliefs, self-identity and behaviour. The broad coverage by the media raises some central questions related to the complexity of researches, the intrinsic limits of these technologies, the results’ interpretative boundaries, factors which are crucial to properly understand the studies’ value. In case of an incomplete communication, if those fundamental interpretative elements are not well understood, we could register a misinterpretation in the public perception of the studies that opens new compelling questions. As already observed in the past debates on science and technologies applications, in this case, too, we assist to a communicative problem that set against scientific community on one side and media, on the other. Focusing our attention, in particular, on the debate on fMRI, taken as a good model, in the present letter we will investigate the most interesting aspects of the current discussion on neuroscience and neuroscience public perception. This analysis was performed as one of the bid - brains in dialogue - activities (www.neuromedia.eu). bid is a three year project supported by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Program and coordinated by Sissa, the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, aimed at fostering dialogue between science and society on the new challenges coming from neuroscience.


2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (0) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Paweł Czarnecki

The article analyses the rights and duties of a social representative in criminal proceedings (article 90 Code of Criminal Procedure). Participation in court proceedings may be declared, before the commencement of judicial examination, by a representative of a community organisation, if there is a need to defend a social interest or an important individual interest within the statutory purposes of such an organisation, especially in matters pertaining to the protection of human rights and freedoms. The representative of a community organisation who has been admitted to participate in court proceedings may participate in the trial, express their points of view and make statements in writing. The court shall admit a representative of a community organisation if it finds this to be in the interests of justice. This person shall not be allowed to ask questions to person questioned by the court, he has no right to make a complaint with the court, can`t submit motions for evidence and are not entitled to participate in a session or in an investigation. The author emphasizes the importance of participation by the citizenry in the administration of justice principle and the right to a fair and public hearing of his case. In article they were also discussed old draft bills in the position of social representative in criminal cases, and in particular the advantages and disadvantages of amending article 90 c.c.p. Amendment of 10 June 2016. The author argues that the changing of position will not increase the participation of the public in the proceedings, because the legislature did not admit procedural rights.


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