A/HRC/15/33 common standards, and cooperate in specific areas. The agreement on cooperation in protecting victims and witnesses among the Baltic States was developed in 2000. The Central America Integration System has developed the Covenant for the Protection of Victims, Witnesses, Experts and Other Participants in the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution, Particularly in Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime. Europol coordinates a European Liaison Network that is made up of the heads of specialist witness protection units. It has drafted the Basic principles in the European Union police cooperation in the field of witness protection, focusing on relocation issues. 41. To date, most inter-state and regional cooperation in witness protection seems to occur in the context of fighting organized crime, terrorism and corruption. This practice could also be meaningful in the context of national or international prosecutions or investigations for gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law. IV. Key elements of a witness protection programme within the framework of criminal procedures related to gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law A. Issues to be addressed in the law 42. UNODC good-practices report discusses key elements of witness protection programmes involving organized crime, including the legal framework for setting up such programmes.42 The specific nature of witness protection must be carefully examined when considering investigation and prosecution of gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law. In the context of prosecutions dealing with organized crime, witnesses often include system insiders. The opposite is almost invariably true for witnesses of human rights violations, who are mainly victims of such crimes. The Special Court for Sierra Leone, for example, reported that 60 per cent of witnesses admitted to its witness and victim protection program were victims, 3 per cent child soldiers, 6 per cent international experts and 31 per cent insiders.43 43. Key elements of a legal framework for witness and victim protection are discussed in the paragraphs below, with focus on the specific needs of witness protection programmes in trials related to gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law. (i) A comprehensive system 44. The first decision to be made is whether to build a comprehensive programme, or, taking into account the specificities of human rights violations, a separate program for such cases. It would be highly desirable to establish a comprehensive program which can then be articulated in such a way as to take into account specificities. There are mainly two reasons to support such choice: 1) in order to make efficient use of State resources, it would be preferable to create one institution to deal with all witness protection needs; 2) a 42 43 GE.10-15173 UNODC, Report on Good Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime, pp. 19–22, 43–47. See Special Court for Sierra Leone, Best-Practice Recommendations for the Protection & Support of Witnesses, 2008. 13