Mexico City • On Friday the Secretary of Government Affairs [SEGOB] published in the Official Journal of the Federation the decree amending, repealing and adding various provisions to the General Law of Victims and to the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure. The bill is a reform that seeks to compensate the rights of victims of organized crime.
It defines a direct victim as the person who has been affected economically, physically, mentally, emotionally as the result of the commission of a crime or violation of their rights. One of the reforms is the inclusion of the classification of "potential victims", which provides protection for victim advocates in the event that their rights to life and liberty are threatened.
The changes were approved in the Chamber of Deputies on April 16--with 448 votes in favor--in order to ensure its implementation faced with the charge by various organizations that the law was inapplicable in practice.
It creates the National Register of Victims, and sufficient budget for fiscal year 2014 must be allocated.
It establishes a Fund for Aid, Assistance and Complete Reparation, which will be comprised of resources allocated in the Expenditure Budget of the Federation and the proceeds from the sale of property seized in criminal processes or bail, fines, penalties and donations, among others.
A major point of the amended law is the creation of the National System for Attention to Victims, in which various agencies of the three levels of government and sectors of society will collaborate.
The Federal Criminal Procedure Code was amended in Article 182-R, which now establishes that resources obtained from the sale of property confiscated in federal criminal trials will be used to compensate victims. The resources will be divided equally between the Judiciary of the Federation, the Attorney General's Office, the Secretariat of Health and the Fund for Aid, Assistance and Complete Reparation.
The Federal Criminal Procedure Code was amended in Article 182-R, which now establishes that resources obtained from the sale of property confiscated in federal criminal trials will be used to compensate victims. The resources will be divided equally between the Judiciary of the Federation, the Attorney General's Office, the Secretariat of Health and the Fund for Aid, Assistance and Complete Reparation.
The first article establishes that it is a matter of public order and civic interest throughout the country, so that state, as well as federal, authorities must implement it. Therefore, Congress and state legislatures have a period of one year from May 4 to implement changes in order to fulfill the legislation. Spanish original