Victim Support Europe on advancing the protection of victims of crime in Estonia

Tallinn, 19 September 2022

Antonio De Martin and Liis Allmäe from Victim Support Europe took part in the Violence Prevention Agreement meeting, organised by the Ministry of Justice of Estonia in Tallinn.

The meeting included presentations on various topics related to working with abused children and introduced the upcoming changes to the Victim Support Act. In addition, it provided an opportunity to discuss issues surrounding preventative education in schools and the impact of the war in Ukraine on violence prevention in Estonia.

Antonio De Martin and Liis Allmäe from Victim Support Europe, together with Brit Tammiste from the Ministry of Justice of Estonia, spoke about the protection of victims of crime in Estonia and introduced the latest progress made within the Advancing Rights of Estonian Victims (AREV) project.

The main goal of the AREV project is to enhance the rights of Estonian victims by improving the protection and support processes of victims of crime in the determined piloting area in Estonia: the Viru County. To achieve this goal, VSE works closely with the Estonian Ministry of Justice, the Police and Guard Board, the Social Insurance Board, the healthcare sector, and other key stakeholders to develop, deliver and test tools for information provision, individual needs assessment and referral of victims.

Victim Support Europe showcased the developments in creating guidelines for the healthcare sector as to how to identify and support victims of crime. Ultimately, this will include a short guideline, a flowchart and a longer, more detailed guideline for healthcare service providers. Brit Tammiste, the Ministry of Justice of Estonia, spoke of the progress that has been made with regard to the Individual Needs Assessment form, which will soon be piloted in collaboration with the Eastern Prefecture as well as the ‘PAKE Abuse and Body Map’ tool. Liis Allmäe introduced information provision tools of which an interactive map of the service providers is already working on the Ministry of Justice’s webpage abiksohvrile.ee and a self-assessment questionnaire directed to potential victims which is still in the development phase.

It is the hope of Victim Support Europe that AREV project will produce results that will make it a model of a good practice in the development of victim-centric justice to be used in other EU member states and beyond.

Project stakeholders in the pilot region: East Prefecture, Viru District Prosecutor’s Office, Social Insurance Board, Victim Support (East region), Rakvere Hospital, Narva Hosptal, Ida-Viru Central Hospital, Viru County Court.