Victims’ rights

An estimated 15% of EU citizens (about 75 million people) fall victim to crime every year. Eurojust supports numerous cross-border criminal investigations each year, helping to deliver justice to thousands of victims of all forms of serious crime. The complexity of cross-border cases makes it especially difficult for judicial authorities to protect victims’ rights. Involving Eurojust early in the process helps to overcome these difficulties and ensure victims’ protection.

Eurojust’s role

Ensuring victims’ rights is an issue that pervades the vast majority of Eurojust’s casework. The Agency minimises the risks associated with the cross-border dimension of cases by ensuring timely and efficient coordination between the various countries and actors involved in guaranteeing victims’ rights. Eurojust is uniquely positioned to facilitate information exchange on victims to identify, facilitate their rescue and protect them. Moreover, it is able to help prevent and solve conflicts of jurisdiction and find concrete solutions for victims across the European Union, such as ensuring their right to compensation.

Eurojust’s expertise

Eurojust set up its Victims’ Rights Working Group to bring together the Agency’s expertise in this field. The Group consists of representatives from all Eurojust crime-based Working Groups and is responsible for compiling, monitoring and analysing victim-related issues reported by practitioners working on Eurojust-referred cases. Through its targeted guidelines for practitioners, Eurojust advises on the most effective ways to protect victims’ rights. Based on Eurojust’s operational work and using case illustrations, the Report on Eurojust’s casework on victims’ rights captures the Agency’s broad experience and offers an overview of best practices to overcome victim-related challenges in various EU priority crime areas.

Working in partnership

The Agency supports Member States and EU institutions including the European Commission Coordinator for victims’ rights to ensure that the victims’ rights dimension within the context of judicial cooperation is reflected in EU legislation, such as the Directive on Victims’ Rights. Eurojust is also a member of the EU Victims’ Rights Platform consisting of representatives of European Justice and Home Affairs agencies, networks, bodies and civil society organisations working on implementing the EU Strategy on Victims’ Rights.

Victims in cross-border cases

Serious cross-border crimes such as terrorist attacks, cyber-enabled and environmental crimes often affect many innocent people worldwide. Experience shows that prosecutors and investigative judges are often in the frontline when it comes to identifying and solving issues related to the exercise of victims’ rights in a cross-border context.

Eurojust works hard to protect victims’ rights in such cross-border criminal investigations and prosecutions. It does this by systematically ensuring that the victims’ rights dimension is considered early on and in its own right.

Eurojust’s added value

Eurojust minimises the risks associated with the cross-border dimension of cases by ensuring timely and efficient coordination between the various countries and actors involved. This approach guarantees the respect of victims’ rights beyond national boundaries.

Eurojust is ideally placed to map and report on best practices to overcome the challenges stemming from the cross-border nature of the cases referred to Eurojust. Specifically, Eurojust can:

  • clarify the definition and identification of victims (particularly when there are many victims and/or large-scale terrorist attacks);
  • ascertain the procedural status of victims (i.e. the status of  victims versus witnesses);
  • draw practitioners’ attention on the need to anticipate and mitigate the risk of secondary victimisation;
  • facilitate the consideration given to victims’ interests when addressing jurisdiction issues; and
  • propose concrete solutions to overcome the difficulties related to ensuring victims’ remediation and compensation.

Eurojust has gained broad experience over the years in victims’ rights issues. The Agency’s work demonstrates the value of including the victims’ rights perspective when designing investigation and prosecution strategies to tackle cross-border crime. Eurojust is committed to supporting these efforts by incorporating the victims’ rights dimension more systematically into the support it provides to practitioners.

Partnerships

Eurojust is a member of the EU Victims’ Rights Platform, consisting of representatives of European Justice and Home Affairs agencies, networks, bodies and civil society organisations working on implementing the EU Strategy on Victims’ Rights. The Agency supports Member States and EU institutions including the European Commission Coordinator for victims’ rights on the revision of EU legislation, such as the Directive on Victims’ Rights.

Together with other EU Justice and Home Affairs Agencies, Eurojust contributes to dedicated publications in the area, such as the Joint Report on the identification and protection of victims of human trafficking. The Report is the first full overview of successful actions to detect and protect victims of human trafficking.

Legal and policy instruments

Legal instruments

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 EU has adopted specific rules for certain groups of victims. These rules build on the Victims' Rights Directive but respond more directly to the specific needs of some victims. The EU legislation exists to provide protection and support for:

The EU has put in place legislation that facilitates access to compensation in situations where the crime was committed in an EU country other than the victim's country of residence.

Main policy documents

The European Commission adopted its first-ever EU strategy on victims' rights (2020-2025) on 24 June 2020. The main objective of this strategy is to ensure that all victims of crime, no matter where the crime took place in the EU or under what circumstances, can fully exercise their rights. To that end, it outlines actions that will be conducted by the European Commission, Member States and civil society.

Publications

Report on Eurojust's casework on victims' rights:

This report draws on the experience gained by the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) in relation to victims’ rights. Based on Eurojust’s casework and using case examples, the report identifies challenges faced by practitioners and presents solutions and best practices to overcome them.

Leaflet on Eurojust’s role in safeguarding victims’ rights in cross-border crime:

This leaflet explains the challenges involved in safeguarding victims’ rights in an international crime context and Eurojust’s role in meeting these challenges. It also highlights the Agency’s expertise and partnerships in this domain. Moreover, the leaflet includes an infographic illustrating Eurojust’s support to national authorities in protecting victims’ rights throughout all stages of an investigation.

Eurojust Report on Trafficking in Human Beings:

One of the aims in preparing this Eurojust report was to help bring human traffickers to justice, while protecting the victims.

Eurojust Factsheet on supporting judicial authorities in the fight against terrorism:

This factsheet illustrates how Eurojust uses various forms of practical assistance to enable efficient collaboration in criminal investigations and to promote the development of crucial expertise, including the protection of victims.

Eurojust Guidelines on How to Prosecute Investment Fraud and the accompanying leaflet:

These guidelines are primarily based on an analysis of investment fraud cases opened at Eurojust between 2016 and 2020, complemented by experiences shared during discussions with selected Eurojust National Desks. Part of the guidelines provide insight into how to deal with huge numbers of victims.

Joint report of the JHA agencies’ network on the identification and protection of victims of human trafficking:

This report of the JHA agencies’ network aims to make Member States more aware of the agencies’ potential in facilitating the early identification and protection of victims and to encourage Member States to work closer with the agencies in this area.

 

Press releases