Rape victims should be entitled to legal representation from the time they make their statement to police until the trial is over, a conference in Dublin will be told today.
Other recommendations include more co-ordination between police and doctors, immediate access to counselling, the "fasttracking" of sexual assault cases, separate facilities for victims and defendants in court, specialist training for judges and other professionals involved, keeping statistics on sentencing, and compensation tribunals.
The conference, The Legal Process and Victims of Rape, will hear the results of a study which examined how rape victims are treated by the legal systems in five EU countries. It also contains a survey of how rape is dealt with in the legal systems of the other EU states.
The study was jointly conducted by the Rape Crisis Centre and the School of Law in Trinity College Dublin. The study found a major difference between countries with an adversarial system (like Ireland and Britain) and those with an inquisitorial system (like France and Belgium). Britain and Ireland are the only countries without legal representation for rape victims.
In a foreword to the study the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, points out: "For the most part, under the inquisitorial system no formal rules of evidence apply and guiding principle for the trial court is that of `free evaluation of all the evidence'."
The study pointed out that the treatment of the victim's evidence in court was very different under the inquisitorial system. In France and Belgium the victim does not give evidence at the trial, she is legally represented as a party to the case, her pre-trial statement is taken by the investigating judge and relied on by the prosecution.
Commenting on the study, the director of the Rape Crisis Centre, Ms Olive Braiden, said: "Separate legal representation is the one single change that would make all the difference."