After an exciting conference in Warsaw in May we all are looking forward to the changes in our home countries. There is only one year left for the implementation of the Directive. If you have news and/or best practice examples to share, please, send them and inform us. This might help us all. And we therefore would like to share them with all members.
Please let me add a personal remark: It was a great pleasure to work with Sara Reis in our Brussels office preparing the newsletters. Content and design demonstrate her excellent work. She will be leaving VSE in order to pursue her studies. I wish her great success and all the best!
Helgard Van Hüllen, Editor
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VSE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014 : A SUCCESS!
"Developing Victim Support Across Europe"
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Victim Support Europe’s Annual Conference 2014 “Developing Victim Support across Europe – Quality, Standards and Capacity-Building” took place in Warsaw, Poland, from 14 to 17 May 2014 and was hosted by our Polish member organisation Subvenia Victima.
The conference counted more than 200 participants including victim support practitioners, EU member states representatives, academics and journalists. With more than 50 presentations divided into 5 plenary sessions and 14 workshops, the conference was an excellent opportunity for fruitful best practice exchange, particularly regarding the implementation of the EU directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. Read more
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Recent developments on victims' rights across Europe
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European Union
David McKenna on behalf of VSE and Helgard van Hüllen for Weisser Ring Germany were invited as speakers for the European Commission´s Workshop with Member States’ experts about the implementation of selected provisions of the Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. This workshop took place on 28 March 2014 at the Albert Borschette Conference Centre (CCAB) in Brussels.
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Belgium
Steunpunt Algemeen Welzijnswerk
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Croatia
Croatian Victim and Witness Support Service
Victim and Witness Support Service in Croatia organized four round tables in 4 different cities: Zagreb, Vukovar, Split and Rijeka from March till June. The subject of these round tables was the "Improvement of legal, economic and psychological status of victims and witnesses". Round tables were organised as part of the project "Capacity Building of the Support System for Victim and Witnesses of Crime" supported by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). The aim of the round tables was to present different organisations and institutions that are dealing with victims and witnesses, identify problems that they are confronted with in their work, exchange examples of good practice and discuss about possible ways to further develop a support system for victims and witnesses.
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Croatia
Bijeli Krug Hrvatske (White Circle Croatia)
The association for help and support for victims of crime White circle Croatia from Split is in the application process for EU competition IPA 2012 "Building the capacity of civil society organisations in ensuring the effective implementation of EU standards in strengthening human rights", with the project of establishing " The Assessment Center for Victims of Crime in Split-Dalmatia County " .
This project is in complete synergy with the Croatian legislative framework (primarily with the Law of Criminal Procedure, Article 43 that states that the victim of crime has the right to receive "effective psychological and other professional assistance and support of the body, organisation or institution that provides help to victims of crime"), and is also in synergy with the EU Directive 2012/29/EU on the establishment of minimum standards for the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.
The possibility that the victim receives the right of access to support services, based on individual assessment, requires the cooperation of the competent state bodies, institutions and civil society organisations. For this intent, Bijeli Krug has established initial cooperation with the head office of Split - Dalmatia county, the state attorney, the county court in Split and Social Welfare Center in Split. Only in this way can comprehensive assistance and support to victims of crime be provided.
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Finland
Rikosuhripaivystys Suomessa
From the beginning of this year some legal changes have been made to improve the rights of crime victims in Finland. The law on pretrial investigations has now an article which states that the police should inquire from the victim if their contact information can be forwarded to victim services. Victim Support Finland follows closely which effects this change will have in the number of referrals from the police. Concerning child victims of assault changes were made in the special legislation which regulates the process of investigation. The rights of child victims of assault in the investigation process were brought to the same level as the rights of child victims of sexual crimes e.g. in psychiatric investigation and change of information among authorities. This should also improve the possibilities for these children to get treatment.
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Germany
Weisser Ring Germany
To cope with the criminal process is a big challenge for victims of crime. They are exposed to painful interrogations by the criminal defence lawyer and forced to encounter the perpetrator in court. Very often victims are reduced to providing evidence of the case which then might be doubted and questioned by lawyers and judges. This situation can trigger re-victimisation and re-traumatisation of the victims.
Criminal offenders are often supported by a criminal defence lawyer in trail. Victims of crime also need a specialised lawyer in order to protect their rights.
Only a professional lawyer for victim’s rights can spend the urgently required support for victims and make sure that victim’s rights are protected and executed during criminal proceedings. Especially when victims have the right to compensation payments they are very rarely able to claim their rights.
Therefore the organisation WEISSER RING Germany demands a specialised lawyer for victim’s rights.
WEISSER RING Germany has elaborated a comprehensive qualification concept for the victim’s rights specialisation of lawyers. This concept is based on the expertise of the WEISSER RING and was developed in cooperation with professors, judges, prosecutors and lawyers themselves. WEISSER RING calls on the federal bar association to accept the specialisation on victim’s rights as an official area of work for lawyers, to recognize the qualification programme with a certificate and so establish certified specialist in victim’s rights.
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Malta
Victim Support Malta
Victim Support Malta is currently working on a project aimed at drawing young people, victims of crime, to the organisation's services. As part of the project Victim Support Malta is carrying out a research study which will then be followed by an awareness raising campaign aimed at young victims of crime. In the light of the new Directive the organisation is also aiming to enhance its services in relation to young people.
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The Netherlands
Slachtofferhulp Nederland
The Department of Safety and Justice in The Netherlands is putting a lot of effort in the implementation of the EU Directive on victim's rights. Slachtofferhulp Nederland participates in many projects, together with the police, the public prosecutor's office and other relevant government bodies. Special projects are aimed at improving the support to four different groups of victims: victims of crimes that haven't been solved by the police, victims of serious crimes, victims of crimes that are processed through the regular criminal justice procedures and victims of crimes that are processed through the 'as-soon-as-possible'-criminal justice procedures. For the latter group, Slachtofferhulp Nederland received additional funding to support about 100.000 victims involved in this procedure.
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Portugal
Portuguese Association for Victim Support - APAV
Project ABC Justice, promoted by the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV) and co-financed by the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) of the United States Embassy, is in its final stage. The interactive website for providing youngsters aged between 12 and 17 with information about the criminal justice system and the rights of victims of crime is being finished. This website, whose launch is expected for July 2014, will present their users with several interactive, creative and child-friendly features such as quiz, videos and other surprises. During the last month APAV also facilitated 10 informative sessions for students in different schools around the country. Along with those sessions, a total of 11 guided visits to court houses, police stations and victim support offices were performed. Until this moment we were able to reach a total of 185 young students. Before the end of the project, it is foreseen the facilitation of 4 other informative sessions and 2 guided visits.
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Spain
Asociación Nacional de Víctimas de Delitos Violentos
ANVDV has been meeting with the Home Office to introduce the new EU Directive on victims' rights in the training of the State Security Forces.
On 24 March 2014 ANVDV organised a conference at the Madrid Bar Association about lawyers and the EU directive on victims' rights and it was quite a successful event. It had four presentations on the topics of "genesis and origins of the directive", "victims, lawyers and prosecution", "rules about terrorism victims and EU directive 29/2012" and "Spanish lawyers and the new directive".
In May 2014, protection specialists of victims, coordinated by the Attorney of the Supreme Court, discussed the new Directive on victims' rights and how to put it in practice. Some of the issues were the control of the release of prisoners, protection of the victims and an evaluation of the draft Statute of the Victim.
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United States
International Cruise Victims Association
This past year has been a very busy year for International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) as it addressed the issues of victim rights on maritime ships. ICV now has a direct link on their home page for EU victims to request assistance. In addition to showing ICV's connection to VSE, ICV has inserted information on how UK citizens can contact with ICV and/or directly with Victim Support England & Wales. This can be found HERE. Other victim support organisations are welcome to consider providing ICV with information so they too can be added to the website.
Mr. Michael Lloyd, who lives in the UK and represents ICV in the EU, has prepared a very extensive 21 page report title "The Investigation of Accidents and Crime at Sea". This report outlines the issue of lack of victim support on the High Seas and can be found HERE. In addition, major additional legislation was introduced in the United States and ICV plans to make an application to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London so that victims in the EU and worldwide are given a voice at the international organization which is part of the UN.
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Seminar Right to Quality Services for Victims of Crime
18 September 2014, Lisbon (Hotel Fénix Lisboa)
Read more
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