Pro.Vi – Protecting Victims Rights

The need to recognize and protect the rights of victims of crime has received growing attention in recent years with the passage of EU Directive 2012/29/EU – also known as the Victims’ Directive – and subsequent adoption and implementation legislation in EU Member States intended to assure the directive’s implementation. This transposition and implementation phase, however, shows signs of significant variation in Member States with different levels of protections for victims as well as differences in the means used to assure the protection of rights and provision of services.
Pro.Vi – Protecting Victims’ Rights – responds to this need to support EU Members States in fully implementing the directive with a specific focus on partner countries: Italy, Germany, Portugal, Romania, and Spain.

Working in close partnership with supporting institutions in each country, partner institutions are engaged in specifically tailored actions that support capacity building in each country that addresses gaps identified during the project.

Through cooperation with public and private stakeholders and institutions, Pro.Vi aims to:

• Complement European efforts in promoting an efficient crime victims’ protection system and suggest strategies for further development of EU victims’ rights policy.
• Strengthen the capacity of the victims’ protection system in the partner countries to support crime victims by:
  • increasing the capacity of restorative justice practitioners to support crime victims;
  • increasing the awareness and capacity of justice system practitioners to protect victims’ rights;
  • improving the crime victim protection system involving criminal justice, restorative justice and victim support services;
  • enhancing crime victims’ understanding of and access to their rights.

Approach and methods

Pro.Vi utilizes two-fold approach at three levels – transnational, national and local.

Project actions are based on an analysis that lays the framework for capacity building actions developed in close cooperation with local and national stakeholders and institutions involved in the project in transnational exchanges, national advisory boards, multi-agency meetings, and seminars.