Protecting victims is a public responsibility

No authority retains legitimacy by silencing victims instead of enforcing the law

I am now a PhD. Back in 2019, I was awarded one of only 16 doctoral fellowships reserved nationwide for researchers with disabilities through the Spanish Ministry of Universities of Spain' FPU university professor in training program. These FPU fellowships are among Spain's most competitive in the country, providing up to six years of funding that combine doctoral research with teaching as university professors in training. Barely any other options exist to get a doctoral degree funded in Spain. Receiving one of these fellowships represents a substantial public investment in developing the next generation of researchers and university faculty. Protecting those entrusted with this responsibility, particularly when they become victims of serious violence, is therefore not only a matter of individual welfare but also of academic integrity, public responsibility, and the responsible stewardship of public resources.

I did not become a victim of aggression and abuses of power as part of any planned or controlled exercise to identify institutional failures. I became a victim of serious violence while carrying out publicly funded research. Yet, instead of the institutions responsible for enforcing the law and protecting researchers intervening effectively, I found myself having to pursue accountability and the enforcement of my own fundamental rights. No researcher should bear that responsibility alone. No victim should have to secure the enforcement of the law through their own persistence while continuing to endure the consequences of violence, even in harsher propositions. The responsibility to prevent violence, stop it, protect those affected, investigate wrongdoing, and enforce the law rests with society and its institutions, not with those who have already been harmed. When victims are left carrying that burden alone, the rule of law is weakened, criminality is effectively normalized, crime protected instead of law, all involved discouraged from seeking protection or reporting what has happened.

Here is a more legal and academically grounded version that incorporates those concepts without overstating what is universally criminal.

Institutional betrayal extends beyond individual cases. When the dismissal of victims becomes routine, moral priorities are inverted. Crimes are minimized, ignored, or left without an effective response, while those who report them are treated as the problem rather than those entitled to protection and justice. The rule of law depends not only on prohibiting criminal conduct but also on the effective functioning of the institutions responsible for preventing, investigating, prosecuting, and sanctioning it. Obstruction of justice, retaliation against complainants or witnesses, abuse of public authority, the concealment or suppression of evidence, and unjustified failures to investigate credible allegations all undermine that function. Whether constituting criminal offenses, administrative misconduct, or serious breaches of public duty under the applicable legal framework, such conduct weakens accountability, facilitates impunity, and increases the risk of further victimization. By allowing crimes to remain unaddressed, institutions may inadvertently or deliberately create conditions in which perpetrators continue offending without effective restraint.

Fieldworkers, researchers, journalists, healthcare professionals, and other practitioners who encounter crimes or serious abuses therefore perform an essential public service. Their responsibility is not merely to document events but to ensure that evidence reaches the institutions charged with enforcing the law, while contributing to transparency, accountability, and institutional learning. Reporting wrongdoing is not an act of disloyalty but a commitment to the rule of law and to the protection of present and future victims. The legitimacy of public institutions ultimately depends not on preserving their reputation through silence, but on their willingness to investigate impartially, protect complainants and witnesses, hold offenders accountable, and remedy their own failures when justice has been denied.

Every abuse of public authority, act of corruption, obstruction of justice, or failure to investigate credible allegations weakens the rule of law. When institutions protect wrongdoing instead of confronting it, they do not merely fail victims. They undermine their own legitimacy.