Crime can affect victims in many ways, ranging from disturbance to trauma in more serious cases and, all crime victims without any discrimination shall be ensured access to justice. In the European Union there has been a range of general and specific legal acts adopted in the area of victims’ rights to regulate the support and protection of crime victims.
The European Network on Victims’ Rights (ENVR) is a formation founded for active cooperation and collaboration between experts – policy makers and practitioners – working under the control of national public organs of the EU Member States, responsible for victims’ rights. ENVR was established in 2016 by Council conclusions (Amsterdam Conclusions, 9997/16) and it has been operating in permanent organizational form since 2018.
ENVR started its activities in 2016 as a generalist network and later linked its collaboration with two specific networks: the Network of EU single contact points for compensation to crime victims (Compensation Network) and the Network of EU single contact points for victims of terrorism (SCPVOT Network). Currently the Generalist Network, the Compensation Network, and the SCPVOT Network are working under the umbrella of the organization and together forming ENVR.
We now work with approximately 120 national experts and our activity covers all the Member States of the European Union.
The ENVR is operated by the Association of the European Network on Victims’ Rights under the aegis of the Justice Programme of the European Union.
The mission of ENVR is to be a hub of public experts for developing a common and sustainable knowledge base which help to implement victims’ rights related EU law and, to apply the transposed legislation in a more effective manner.
ENVR can also reflect on ideas for new legislation that have come up and actively participate in EU-level policy making. Following the aims and tasks of ENVR, leads to a living cooperation among ENVR members which can result also in the better practical management of cross-border cases.
The mission of ENVR serves the overall goal to improve all crime victims’ access to their rights.
For download stakeholder toolkit of the # Eyes Open campaign on victims’ rights please CLICK HERE.
You can use and re-use these materials as a resource to provide information to victims on their rights and the support available to them. The toolkit contains an easy-to-understand explanation of victims’ rights, leaflets, pictures, posters, short films and lists of victim support organisations for each target country in the national language.
ENVR is cooperation of Member State experts working under the control of competent government authorities responsible for victims’ rights, from all Member States of the European Union. Each Member State may appoint two professionals as national contact points to ENVR, so the Network would have altogether 56 permanent experts as representatives.
ENVR was established in 2015, by the initiative of the Netherlands, and was being run until 2017 in the frame of an Action Grant under the Justice Programme of European Commission.
In the first period of the Network, priorities have been mainly determined around the key issues of the Victims Directive [1] and the Directive on combatting terrorism [2]. Thus, discussions focused on e.g. the practical application of the individual assessment, access to information, training of professionals, secondary victimization, social assistance of victims and proceeding cross border cases especially in case of a terrorist attack and including compensation. As of 1 January 2018, ENVR has been working in a permanent structure from an Operating Grant in the frame of the Justice Programme of the European Commission.
The permanent operation and the legal status of the future ENVR is grounded by the Association of the European Network on Victims’ Rights (AENVR) that was established with the aim to ensure the continuousness of ENVR. Are members of the association: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.
The coordination of the ENVR activities is managed by the professional management: a Hungarian professional manager and a Hungarian project assistant, who directly belong to the AENVR, and two part-time managers who are experts from France and the Netherlands
The basic aim of the future ENVR is to develop sustainable knowledge base especially for professionals and policy makers acting in the field of supporting and protecting crime victims.
Free movement is a fundamental freedom of the European Union, which offers benefits for citizens when travelling, working or studying abroad. Open borders however increased the number of international crimes and cross-border victimization.
Cross-border victimization means if a person becomes a victim of a crime committed in a country other than the country of residence.
Cross-border victims can have specific needs and can face particular obstacles when exercising their rights, such as language barriers or a lack of knowledge regarding the applicable rules, competent authorities and support offers in another Member State.
The European Network on Victim’ Rights is dedicated to assist in cross-border victim support cases and for this reason operates the Find my victim support service tool. The tool is a catalogue of available support services of different Member States.
If you need assistance in searching national support services, please use our ‘Find my victim support service’ tool. The tool is easy to access and use through our website and is available in 22 EU languages. If you would like to send a message to us, please use Contact
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