ENVR Working Programme 2023

The work of ENVR will cover a wide spectrum of the victims’ rights area in line with the relevant legal instrument, in particular the Victims’ Rights Directive^[1], the Compensation Directive and the Directive on combating terrorism^[2], moreover in line with the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2022-2025)^[3] the EU Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025)^[4] and the relevant Council Conclusions.

In 2023, the following working topics are envisaged by the Association of the European Network on Victims’ Rights. The below listed working topics include the suggestions made by the national experts. Beyond the below priorities, activities may address further issues that are of interest to professionals. Moreover, ENVR remains responsive to situations and urgencies by taking additional activities and working topics, if necessary.

Events

1) ENVR as core generic network

Programme: Spring Expert Meeting (1 whole day personal event in mixed plenary and workshop format)

Working topics:

• Methods of individual assessments in the different stages of the criminal proceeding. Practice of assessment by support agencies/organizations in the process of providing support to crime victims
• European Protection Order – the practical emergence from the victims’ aspect

Programme: Autumn Expert Meeting (1 whole day personal event in mixed plenary and workshop format)

Working topics:

• Aspects of the role and participation of victims in the criminal proceeding – the victim’s active participation in the criminal proceeding / exchange of good practices of sensitive approach to groups of vulnerable victims, such as in particular minors, victims of sexual abuse, victims of gender-based violence, victims of hate crime (special structures/ networks of practitioners, training programs)
• Protecting the victim’ privacy and safety from disseminating sensitive information via the press and social media

Activity: Seminar (1 whole day event in workshop format)

Working topics:

Seminar on “Victims’ rights emergence in practice”

• Exchange of ideas and good practices of the one-stop shop approach
• Methods of monitoring access of victims to their rights and improvement of the access / Methods of quality assurance of victim support (evaluating the access to rights on ground) / Methods of follow-up the victim support
• Organizing training activities for judicial and law enforcement authorities focused on the gender stereotypes and bias, gender discrimination and gender-based violence in order to ensure the observance of the women’s rights / launching a campaign to raise awareness about equal access to justice for women, dedicated to judges and prosecutors with the purpose of adopting a gender-sensitive approach to their work and of taking a pro-active approach to ensure that barriers women face in accessing justice are removed

Activity: focus group meetings (2-4 online meetings in 2023, organized in specific topics)

Working topics:

The thematic to be decided depending on the focus interest of the participating countries and the priorities of the EU-policy.

2) Compensation Network

Activity: meetings of the Compensation network (4 workshops in 2023, of which 2 are personal and 2 are online meetings)

Working areas:

• Continue discussing practical matters arise in the operation of cross-border management
• Discussing EU-level legal instrument evaluations and legislative proposals related to the area of compensation to crime victims, when they arise
• Systems of translation and interpretation (technologies for automatic translation, best practices)
• Defining ideas of concrete requirements and functions for a central EU platform that is secure in terms of data protection, via which the supporting authorities can share and exchange information and manage cross-border cases
• Methods of defining and proving the harm subject to state compensation
• Exchange of good practices of emergency payment by the state
• Mutual recognition of medical documentation subject to cross-border case management
• Exchange of ideas about complementary systems of compensations
• The role of compensation in the holistic approach to victim support
• Training options for partner institutions e.g. police, judiciary, consular services about the national compensation schemes and the possibility of cross-border compensation

3) SCPOVT Network

Activity: meetings of the SCPOVT network (4 workshops in 2023, of which 2 are personal and 2 are online meetings);

Working areas

• Continuing exchange: Continue exchange of good practices of supporting and protecting of victims of   terrorism; Discussing EU-level legal instrument evaluations and legislative proposals related to the area of compensation to crime victims (when they arise); Developments regarding the operative cooperation within the SCPVOT Network
• Using technology in victim assistance and support, for example: Introduction of technical data protection tools; Systems of translation and interpretation in assistance and support for cross-border victims of terrorism (technologies for automatic translation, best practices); New technologies for informing victims, especially in cases of cross-border victims
• Overarching aspects of victim assistance and support: The trauma-informed approach in assisting victims of terrorism to minimize the harm and damages caused by a terrorist attack; Quality assurance in supporting victims of terrorism
• Remembering and commemorating victims of terrorism
• The interfaces between justice and victim support: Exchange of good practices regarding the handling of interfaces between justice and victim support; Introducing the concept of the Victim Prosecutor of the Office of the Attorney General of Germany

4) For all branches of ENVR

Activity: Study visit (2 study visits in 2023)

Working topics:

The thematic to be decided depending on the focus interest of the visiting and the hosting countries. The visiting and hosting countries are to be selected after an open call will be issued by the Association at the beginning of 2023. Experts from all the three branches of ENVR are welcome to apply for this programme.

The structure of the events in 2023

Desk researches aim to reveal the national practice of different aspects of victims’ rights by collecting    data on the 1) good practices in one-stop-shop victim support and the 2) facilities to support cross-border case management: online platforms to exchange data and methods of translation and interpretation. The outcome of the desk researches is a comprehensive comparative study which supports the dissemination as well.

Activities in the area of supporting victims of war crimes

In the second half of 2022, AENVR extended its activity to the area of supporting victims of core international crimes, and the topic was assigned to agenda of the Generic Network. The Network decided to make the following initial steps to facilitate the support to core international victims: extending of the Find my victim support service tool by a new category of support to victims of core international crimes, translate the tool into Ukrainian language, collecting information about the experiences of structures and practices available Member States for victims of core international crimes, publish the results on the www.envr.eu website and,  come in contact with international NGOs to learn more about their experiences related to war crime victims.

Though the above-described work started in 2022, AENVR continues in 2023 to monitoring the area, in line with the discussions take place in the context of the Victims’ Rights Platform, and takes further measures if necessary to help the improvement of the accessibility of services.

[1] Directive 2012/29/EU on establishing minimum standards on the rights, support, and protection of victims of crime

[2] Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on combating terrorism and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA and amending Council Decision 2005/671/JHA

[3] EU strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025) (here)

[4] EU Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025) (here)