Donor: European Commission, Directorate-General Justice and Consumers
Coordinator: Victim Support Europe (VSE)
Partners: Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima (Portugal), Slachtofferhulp Nederland (The Netherlands), Weisser Ring (Germany), Weisser Ring Austria (Austria), BilyKruhBezpeci (Czech Republic), Rikosuhripaivystys/Victim Support Finland (Finland), INAVEM (France), Victim Support Malta (Malta), Brottsofferjouren Sverige/Victim Support Sweden (Sweden), BijelikrugHrvatske /White Circle Croatia (Croatia), Stowarzyszenie SOS dlaRodziny/SOS for the Family Association(Poland), Crime Victims Helpline (Ireland), Associazione LIBRA Onlus (Italy), Equality and Human Rights Action Centre – ACTEDO (Romania), European Public Law Organization (EPLO) (Greece), University of Lleida/UdL (Spain), Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family – SPAVO (Cyprus), Human Rights Monitoring Institute (Lithuania), Društvo za nenasilnokomunikacijo/Association for non-violent Communication (Slovenia), Tilburg University, International Victimology Institute Tilburg – INTERVICT (The Netherlands), Brottsoffermyndigheten – Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority (Sweden)
Project starting date: 01/2017
Project duration: 24 months
Overall budget: EUR 333.967
Countries:Portugal, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Malta, Sweden, Croatia, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovenia, Sweden
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
The overall aim of this project is to help ensure that the rights established in the Victims Directiveare operating in practice. It will achieve this by assisting the EU Commission in its own assessment of implementation as well as providing national stakeholders with evidence of the state of implementation in their own countries.
The project has been designed to overcome the following problems:
- Lack of existing, current research on the practical implementation of the Victims’ Directive.
- Lack of an EU wide analysis of practical implementation.
- Lack of a comprehensive analysis covering all articles of the Directive.
- Lack of evidence base to carry out a practical analysis in all countries and relating to all articles of the Directive.
- Insufficient understanding for certain articles as to what constitutes sufficient implementation.
ACTIVITIES
- Develop indicators (structural, process, outcome) for certain articles of the Directive.
- Develop research tools: interview template and guidelines, standard survey to be translated, standard national report template and guidance.
- Pilot studies: in selected countries in order to refine the research tools and provide guidance for national researchers’ reports.
- National Online surveys in all participating countries (30): which will be directed to organisations and practitioners having contacts with victims to supplement national experts’ research (primarily police, prosecutors, judges and court staff, policy makers and victim support organisations).
- National research & reports: to determine the practical implementation of EU Victims Directive in collaboration with national experts. Achieved through desk research, interviews with practitioners (victim support, police, prosecution, judges, policy officials) and results from online survey. Reports will focus on practical implementation methods such as policies, funding etc. which enable implementation of rights, potential reasons and drivers for successes and failures, good practices, recommendations.
- Synthesis report: national expert reports will be compiled to provide an overview of the EU situation. This will identify key gaps, causes, and develop recommendations for EU wide action.
- Development of recommendations: following from the synthesis report and based on gaps in implementation, drivers for those gaps, best practices around the EU, and on efficiency, effectiveness and feasibility of possible solutions.
- Dissemination of results: through VSE media and partner networks and platforms, inclusion of results and workshops in VSE Annual Conference or November seminar. Also through national experts/ organisations’ own contacts, national actions etc.