PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The Prosecutor’s Office, in collaboration with Stichting Justitiële Inrichtingen St. Maarten (SJIS) and KPSM, has created an information leaflet outlining what occurs when someone files a complaint with police and the role of the prosecutor in the process.
The Prosecutor’s Office and SJIS have added the “What to Expect After Filing A Compliant With Police” leaflet to the information package already provided to victims in criminal cases. The Police Force of Sint Maarten KPSM also has copies of the leaflet to give to victims of crimes or their family members as an additional resource when they file a complaint or if they are contemplating filing a complaint with police.
The leaflet is one component of a larger Domestic Violence and Mediation Restorative Justice Project. Another part of the project was an intensive mediation skills training, held in July, for professionals in the justice field. The leaflet provides information for victims about what the procedure is after they have filed a complaint, It also contains contact information for Safe Haven, Police and other help sources.
The skill training and the several related activities such as a behavioral intervention program for offenders and their partners, and a pilot mediation in criminal cases will be implemented by SJIB and OM SXM in the coming months. These are steps to introducing restorative justice as an alternative approach to conflicts that are usually governed by criminal law, specifically domestic violence cases.
The Domestic Violence and Mediation Restorative Justice Project financed through the Resources for Community Resilience R4CR funding programme. R4CR was implemented by VNG International (the International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities VNG) and funded by the St. Maarten Recovery and Resilience Trust Fund to improve the capacity of St. Maarten’s civil society organisations and to support reconstruction and resilience at the community level.
