| In 1985, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Declaration on the Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. Twenty years after its adoption, it can be argued that the principles contained in this Declaration have been poorly implemented in national legislation and policies. This part of the program will analyse what steps should be taken to turn the Declaration from paper to practice. It will be analysed whether, among other things, a Convention on the Rights of Victims could stimulate implementation of and compliance with the basic principles. If this question is answered in the affirmative, some major issues will come to the fore. For instance, should such a Convention have sections on information, participation, restitution, compensation, services? Should it have a section on victimization prevention? Should it have a section on monitoring implementation (such as the EU Framework Decision)? Should it have a special committee (such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Convention on the Rights of the Child)? Should it have a provision for remedies for individual victims? How will it relate to the Transnational Organized Crime Convention and the Optional Protocol on Trafficking? How would it relate to the International Criminal Court? Several of these questions were discussed during an expert meeting held at INTERVICT in December 2005. A group of widely recognized international victimologists met in Tilburg to discuss these issues, which resulted in a Draft Convention on the Rights of Victims. |
