SPECIFIC GROUP OF VICTIMS – COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Council of Europe – Conventions

Among other provisions, ‘the Convention calls on governments to establish as a criminal offence the illegal removal of human organs from living or deceased donors also provides protection measures and compensation for victims as well as prevention measures to ensure transparency and equitable access to transplantation services’.

The Convention ‘opens the path for creating a legal framework at pan-European level to protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence. The Convention also establishes a specific monitoring mechanism (“GREVIO”) in order to ensure effective implementation of its provisions by the Parties’. [Source: www.coe.int]. It has been signed also by the EU: see the Council Decision (EU) 2017/866 of 11 May 2017 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence with regard to asylum and non-refoulement.

This Convention establishes ‘the various forms of sexual abuse of children as criminal offences’ and outlines ‘preventive measures’. ‘The Convention also establishes programmes to support victims, encourages people to report suspected sexual exploitation and abuse, and sets up telephone and internet helplines for children (…). The new legal tool also ensures that child victims are protected during judicial proceedings, for example with regard to their identity and privacy’. [Source: www.coe.int]

The Convention aims ‘to increase the effectiveness of existing international texts on the fight against terrorism’ and ‘to strengthen member States’ efforts to prevent terrorism (…). The Convention contains a provision on the protection and compensation of victims of terrorism. A consultation process is planned to ensure effective implementation and follow up’.[Source: www.coe.int]

‘The Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism will make a number of acts, including taking part in an association or group for the purpose of terrorism, receiving terrorist training, travelling abroad for the purposes of terrorism and financing or organising travel for this purpose, a criminal offence. The Protocol also provides for a network of 24-hour-a-day national contact points facilitating the rapid exchange of information’ [Source: www.coe.int]

‘The Convention is a comprehensive treaty mainly focused on the protection of victims of trafficking and the safeguard of their rights. It also aims at preventing trafficking as well as prosecuting traffickers’ [Source: www.coe.int]

‘The Convention provides for the setting up of an international committee empowered to visit all places where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority. The committee, composed of independent experts, may make recommendations and suggest improvements in order to strengthen, if necessary, the protection of persons visited from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This preventive, non-judicial machinery is an important addition to the system of protection already existing under the European Convention on Human Rights’ [Source: www.coe.int]

Council of Europe – Committee of Ministers, RECOMMENDATIONS and GUIDELINES

Legislation and policies tailored on victims’ needs; Empowering victims to prevent secondary victimization; Information and public awareness on the consequences of crimes on victims; Effective assistance, treatment and counselling; Compensation; Access to justice and procedural rights.