Mapping EU law and policy on victims of crime

Last year, VSE completed its mapping of European legislation that can be relevant for victims of crime in the EU. Now, it is available on VSE’s new website here: https://victim-support.eu/legislation/ 

Within the European Union, there exist various institutions and bodies producing and implementing legislation, policies, funding programs, and other projects in a myriad different fields. The complexity of the setup of the European Union and its bodies allows for an in-depth approach to every aspect of every field, from agriculture and food safety to translation and research to migration and human rights. However, there are also downsides associated with this complexity – it can be hard to navigate through large numbers of different bodies and their websites when looking for information.

There have been efforts to improve the situation and to better consolidate information on certain topics. For instance, the new (beta) version of the European e-Justice Portal provides a relatively easy-to-navigate, user-friendly interface with information organised by topics (and subtopics) rather than by agencies.

There have also been independent projects and collaborations aimed specifically at mapping all the relevant information on specific topics. For instance, a project titled POEMS mapped all EU legislation concerning protection orders in the European Member States. Until now, no similar projects have taken place in the field of victims’ rights. Bringing all this information together contributes towards ensuring victims’ rights are guaranteed all around the European Union.

We have created a comprehensive, user-friendly overview of all laws, policies, and other EU documents which relate to victims of crime. This instrument can be useful to victim support professionals, lawyers, researchers, and even victims themselves by providing all the necessary information on a given topic.

We have identified ten key pieces of legislation, or, in other words, those most relevant to victims of crime. Moreover, we have identified many more documents which might not seem relevant at first sight but which can indeed be indispensable. Overall, the mapping identified 136 documents, including legislation documents, recommendations, reports, working documents, and more. You can search and filter the database by the type of document, topic, type of victim, and year. Once again, you can access mapping the results here: https://victim-support.eu/legislation/

We are always open to your feedback at [email protected]