Witness Protection and Inter-State Cooperation: Current and Emerging Challenges in the Fight against Transnational Organised Crime

The paper provides an overview of different regulatory approaches related to inter-State cross-border cooperation in witness’ protection both at the universal level and in the European context. First, it analyses multilateral framework instruments and arrangements elaborated by the UN, the EU and the CoE in the fight against transnational organised crime, which determine the international legal regime for both procedural and non-procedural protective measures to be provided to ‘protected witnesses’. Then some specific procedural protective measures, e.g. anonymity, are discussed with specific reference to ICTY, ECtHR, and IACtHR case law. Also non-procedural protective techniques are analysed, such as witness relocation abroad and the implementation of specific protection programmes. The paper emphasises that inter-State cooperation in this field displays some specific features and suggests going beyond the traditional approach based on the idea that ‘horizontal’ judicial cooperation must always be granted on a voluntary basis. UNTOC.