In the International Criminal Court's Statute, victims are placed at the heart of justice. In India, there appears to be no uniform legal compulsion to hear the victims’ views before granting remission to a convict.
With all the outrage and debate that the remission has prompted, it is important to remember that at the centre of it stands a survivor negotiating with her lived trauma and harm every day.
While the Gujarat government says the convicts were released as per its 1992 policy, experts say many other factors should have convinced the authorities to reject the applications.