ENVR Working Programme 2024

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 2024, ENVR intends to pay particular attention to topics which are affected by the Proposal for the amendment of the Victims’ Rights Directive.[5]

The following working topics are envisaged by the Association of the European Network on Victims’ Rights. The below listed working topics include as well 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

• Generic network

Programme: Spring Expert Meeting and Seminar (2 whole day personal event in mixed plenary and workshop format)

Day 1 – Expert Meeting

Working topics:

Good practices for ensuring the safety of victims:

• Supporting the victim during the trial (accompanying person, court room facility dogs)
• Protecting the victim’s privacy and safety from disseminating sensitive information via the press, social media and in criminal proceedings
• Practices and ideas regarding effective remedies
• European Protection Order – the practical emergence from the victims’ aspect

Day 2 – Seminar

Working topics:

Seminar on specific support to child victims

• Experiences of the Barnahus model and other holistic approach centres
• Cooperation models for different institutions
• Communication with child victims
• Methodology of individual assessment for children
• Social and psychological support to child victims
• Protecting the physical safety of child victims
• Legal aid to child victims

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

Working topics: the right balance between generic and specific support services

• 1. Good practices of providing specific support to victims:
• Immediate and long-term psychological support (methodology, training, quality assurance, financial background)
• Social support (methodology, training, quality assurance, financial background)
• Legal aid (providers – selection, training, quality assurance, scope of legal aid)

1.2. Providing support to specific groups of victims, in particular:

       –      Victims in institutions

       –      Victims with disabilities

       –      Victims of hate crimes

• Good practices for operating dedicated victims’ helpline
• links with specialised helplines
• the role of helplines in victims’ referral
• helpline service in foreign languages
• training for helpline operators
• public procurement
• communications campaigns
• usefulness of digital tools
• social networks

Activity: focus group meetings (2-4 online meetings in 2024, 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.

• Compensation Network

Activity: meetings of the Compensation network (4 workshops in 2024, of which 2 are personal and 2 are online meetings)

Working areas:

• Continue discussing practical matters arise in the operation of cross-border management
• Finalizing the compensation data chart
• Updating the e-Justice portal compensation related database
• Impact of the VRD revision in the context of compansation
• Good practices for translation and interpretation (technologies for automatic translation, best practices)
• Training options for partner institutions e.g. police, judiciary, consular services about the national compensation schemes and the possibility of cross-border compensation
• Compensation schemes outside of the European Union

• SCPOVT Network

Activity: meetings of the SCPOVT network (4 workshops in 2024, 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
• Cooperation outside of the EU
• Impact of the revision of the VRD on victims of terrorism
• Role of victims of terrorism in trials

• For all branches of ENVR

Activity: Study visit (2 study visits in 2024)

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 2024. Experts from all the three branches of ENVR are welcome to apply for this programme.

The structure of the events in 2024

Desk researches aim to reveal the national practice of different aspects of victims’ rights by collecting    data on the 1) dedicated victims’ helplines 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.

AENVR is furthermore facilitating research efforts of Member States on various topics by provision of contact details for conducting questionnaires and disseminating survey results from Member States on the www.envr.eu website.

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 war crimes, and the topic was assigned to agenda of the Generic Network. Since then, the following measures have been made in order to facilitate the support to this group of 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, preparing a comparative study on national structures and practices related the criminal procedural and victim support aspect of dealing with war crime victims, contacting with international and national institutions and NGOs to learn more about their experiences related to war crime victims, holding a personal workshop to learn about the needs of war crime victims and the national structures and practices available for them. 

The work for war crime victims will continue in 2024 by the follow-up of the available structures, and by monitoring the area in general, in line with the discussions take place in the context of the Victims’ Rights Platform taking 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)

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3724