Knowledge Database – February 2021 Update

This is a monthly update from our Knowledge Database editor Sasha Boychenko. If you would like to submit publications to the Database, please reach out at vse@victimsupporteurope.eu

The month of February brings us one of the most important days on the VSE calendar – the European Day for Victims of Crime. This year, to commemorate the European Day for Victims of Crime, Victim Support Europe launched the “You won’t believe it but it exists” campaign, which will run until November 25th, 2021.

Additionally, the publications featured on our Knowledge Database in February all revolve around the theme of victims’ rights and access to justice. Let us take a look at some of the highlights of the last month.

First, on February 22nd, FRA released a report titled “Crime, Safety and Victims Rights“. This report presents results from FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey – the first EU-wide survey to collect comparable data on people’s experiences with, concern about, and responses to select types of crime. It focuses on violence and harassment, as well as on certain property crimes. Importantly, the results are based on the same questionnaire used in all survey countries. As such, they are an important new data source on the general population’s experiences of crime, and crime reporting, for use at the EU and Member State levels to inform policy and action on the ground.

Another report from FRA featured on the Database in February was “What do Fundamental Rights Mean for People in the EU?” It relies on the same data as the aforementioned report, but focuses more broadly on fundamental human rights. According to FRA, various other reports will come out from the Fundamental Rights survey. Furthermore, a data explorer tool will be launched on the FRA website, which will allow users to browse results by question, country by country, and disaggregated by key socio-demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, and education.

You can now also consult Victim Support Europe’s contribution to the EU Victims’ Rights Strategy. VSE strongly welcomes the European Commission proposal for an EU Strategy on victims’ rights but warns that it must not join the list of EU strategies which became paper documents with limited implementation success.

The latest issue of EUCRIM’s journal is also featured on our Knowledge Database. Eucrim is an online platform that serves as a Europe-wide forum for European criminal law and intends to encourage discussion among both practitioners and academics. This latest issues focuses on providing a platform to experts’ perspectives on various topics within the criminal justice field in the EU.

The End FGM European Network has published a document of Questions and Answers on the rights to support and protection for victims of female genital mutilation as foreseen by the Victims’ Rights Directive. The document outlines the main rights of victims of FGM and provides practical advice on how to exercise these rights.

Finally, the February feature concludes with a report titled “Breaking down barriers: Access to justice in Europe for victims of international crimes“. This report examines the extent to which the specialised units within the EU that investigate and prosecute serious international crimes uphold EU standards on victims’ rights. It is based on research conducted between 2019 and 2020, including approximately 140 interviews with practitioners and policy makers in five Member States—Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The report concludes that victims of serious international crimes continue to face significant legal and practical barriers that limit the exercise of their rights.

We hope you have enjoyed this overview as well as the new additions to the Knowledge Database. If you would like to have your organisation’s publication featured in the next article, please write to us at vse@victimsupporteurope.eu

List of mentioned publications:

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