Implementation of the Victims Rights Directive our Summer Course on - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Seminar on Implementation of the Victims’ Rights Directive

• Victims' Rights Directive-
• transposition, challenges and expectations

European Institute for Gender Equality - 26 November 2015, Vilnius

• ur Summer Course on EU Criminal Justice

2

Victims' Rights Directive- transposition

• Adoption 2012 – transposition deadline 2015
• Correct implementation of the Victims' Rights Directive in

the Member States requires:

• legal actions (transposition of the Directive into the

national legal orders by binding measures) and

• supporting measures (setting up of victims' support

services,

• rganisation
• f

trainings,

• rganisation
• f

individual assessment)  Need for national strategy on implementation

3

Victims' Rights Directive- transposition

• DG Justice implementation strategy since 2012:
• guidance document on implementation of the Directive:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/criminal/files/victims/guidance_victims_rights_directive_en.pdf

• 4 implementation workshops
• Assistance on implementation and interpretation
• f particular provisions on request of particular countries

4

Victims' Rights Directive- transposition

• Where do we stand in November 2015? - notifications

to the COM of national transposition measures:

• 5 MS notified complete transposition

(CZ,ES,MT,PT,SE)

• 8 MS notified partial transposition

(BE,IE,FR,LT,NL,PL,RO,UK)

• Other MS work on adoption of new measures

(different stages of legislative process)

• Possibly even 1/4 of the Member States have not

taken any actions yet

5

Victims' Rights Directive- challenges

• Certain provisions of the Directive more challenging

than others?

• Article 2 -Definition of victim
• Article 4- Right to information- questions of

practical application

• Articles 8 and 9- Rights to support services-

leaves a large margin of discretion to organise in practice

• Article22- Right to individual assessment of

victims needs to identify specific protection measures- equally large margin of discretion to implementation

6

Victims' Rights Directive - Best practice (1)

Examples of EU funded projects aimed at facilitating the implementation* (JUSTICE and DAPHNE programs):

• Individual assesment- EVVI project, 2015 - handbook for the

practitioners, template and recommended practices http://www.justice.gouv.fr/publication/evvi_guide_en.pdf

• Comparative study on the theory and practice of diversity of

treatment during the criminal trial identified ex ante shortcomings in legal / institutional frameworks of 27 MS (in 2014) http://www.victimsprotection.eu/images/4.38- Comparative-Report.pdf *Results of funded projects do not represent the official views of the European Commission

7

Victims' Rights Directive - Best practice (2) -

Examples of EU funded projects aimed at facilitating the implementation* (JUSTICE and DAPHNE programs):

• Protection of victims – national protection orders and mutual

recognition of protection measures, 2015 - EPOGENDER http://www.epogender.eu/ and POEMS http://poems-project.com

• Development of multi-disciplinary and interagency services
• PROMISE project (relevant for children, to be followed in 2016)

http://www.childcentre.info/promise/

• *Results of funded projects do not represent the official views of the European Commission

8

• Fundamental Rights Agency - reports and studies ,e.g.

"Victims of crime in the EU: the extent and nature of support for victims", 2015 http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra- 2015-victims-crime-eu-support_en_0.pdf

• Victims Support Europe – handbook on implementation and

capacity building support for organisations dealing with victims http://victimsupporteurope.eu/

• European Victims' Network –forum to exchange best

practice and to discuss problems among the MS officials

Victims' Rights Directive - Other sources and ideas for cooperation:

9

Victims' Rights Directive- expectations

• The Victims' Rights Directive lays down a set of binding

rules guaranteeing that all victims of crime are recognised and treated in a respectful, sensitive, tailored, professional and non-discriminatory manner

• If correctly implemented, the Directive has a potential of

changing lives of millions of victims in Europe and of making Europe a better place for us all

10

Victims' Rights Directive- expectations

Different groups of victims and their family members have rightful expectations from the Directive, for example:

• Victims of domestic violence – definition of violence in

close relationship in the Preamble of the Directive, importance of provisions on access to support services and on individual assessment, access to information

• Victims of gender-based violence– definition of

gender-based violence in the Preamble including gender identity, gender expression, importance of provisions on individual assessment, trainings of persons coming into contact with victims

11

Victims' Rights Directive- challenges

• Commission is committed to ensuring correct and timely

implementation of the Victims' Rights Directive

• On 16 November the Commission starts its enforcement

strategy (legal, supporting and political actions)

• May, if necessary take legal actions against those Member

States that would fail to transpose the Directive on time

• The correctness of the transposition will be evaluated in

the second stage

• The Commission will also monitor correct application of the

Directive in the Member States (dialogue and legal actions)

• The Commission counts on active participation of the civil

society in implementation and in monitoring of application

• f the Directive in particular Member States

12

Thank you ! Contact / Info:European Commission DG Justice, Procedural Criminal Law unit

• Victims' rights' Team:
• Sara Chrzanowska
• Katarzyna Janicka- Pawlowska
• led by Ingrid Bellander - Todino
• E-mail: sara.chrzanowska@ec.europa.eu
• https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_victims_of_crime-65-en.do