The European Commission seeks to gather input from the widest possible range of stakeholders, including national authorities, non-governmental organisations, victim support organisations and individual citizens, in particular victims of crime, for its public consultation on the evaluation of the EU Victim’s Rights Directive. This evaluation is one of the Commission’s key actions set out in the EU Strategy on Victims’ Rights (2020 – 2025).
The consultation which will collect information, data, views and experiences on the Victims’ Rights Directive, will last for 14 weeks, to close on 25 October 2021. To access the public consultation, please click here.
ICF, a consulting firm tasked by the European Commission will also carry out an evaluation of the Victims’ Rights Directive in partnership with Victim Support Europe. The overall objective of the study is to conduct an independent evaluation of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and EU added value of Directive 2012/29/EU. The results of this study will feed into the Commission’s review of the Directive. La Strada International has been contacted to be consulted for this evaluation together with other key stakeholders selected.
The Victims’ Rights Directive establishes minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime and ensures that persons who have fallen victim to crime are recognised and treated with respect. They must also receive proper protection, support and access to justice. The Directive considerably strengthens the rights of victims and their family members to information, support and protection. It further strengthens the victims’ procedural rights in criminal proceedings. The Directive also requires that EU countries ensure appropriate training on victims’ needs for those officials who are likely to come into contact with victims.
EU countries had to implement the provisions of the Directive into their national laws by 16 November 2015. In 2013, the European Commission issued a guidance document to assist EU countries in this process.