The Newsletter from European Project CEPOV is online
NEWSLETTER
We are delighted to share the latest updates from the project “Addressing the gap in multidisciplinary cooperation to enhance the protection of victims’rights” (CEPOV) that is implemented in Romania, Italy, Germany and Sweden, with the financial support of the Justice Programme. The project is coordinated by the Association Pro Refugiu in partnership with the University of Bucharest-Faculty of Law, Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights, University Roma Tre, Solwodi Germany, Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers. The implementation of the project started in September 2024 and its aim is to approach current challenges that victims of crime encounter in accessing their rights despite the existence of the EU legal framework and its transposition at national level in the Member States.
This newsletter highlights the key milestones, events and development that took place from September 2024 until February 2025.
The project partners elaborated a Roadmap for enhancing multidisciplinary cooperation in terms of identification, referral, assistance and protection for victims of crime. The purpose of the publication is to provide guidance on the procedures that should be used by organisations and institutions that have responsibilities in the identification, referral and assistance of victims, as well as those that have specific competencies in the trial procedures.
You can download the Roadmap here: Roadmap for enhancing multidisciplinary cooperation in terms of identification, referral, assistance and protection for victims of crime.
Two transnational events brought together lawyers, prosecutors, judges, social workers, psychologists, counsellors and other professionals with competencies in the protection and assistance of victims in Romania, Italy, Germany and Sweden, allowing them to comprehensively debate about challenges faced by the victims. The event in Rome (4-5 December 2024) was attended by 33 participants and the one in Bucharest (11-12 February 2025) gathered 27 participants. The debates in Rome were focused on victims of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments, victims of abuse in migration centres, victims of hate crimes, while the discussions in Bucharest approached victims of human trafficking, victims of gender-based violence, victims of cybercrime. The debates revealed substantial gaps in policy implementation and enforcement across the project countries, a set of recommendations being made (e.g. strengthen protection of rights by enhancing multi/inter-disciplinary cooperation at national and transnational level, the need to conduct regular control to ensure that victims receive proper protection and holistic assistance tailored to their needs, more public awareness campaign to address stereotypes and stigma that unfortunately affects many categories of victims, better collection and analysis of data concerning victims from early identification until the end of trial procedures).
Last by not least, we are excited to inform you that from March 2025 we will start the implementation of work package 3 activities consisting in the implementation of national trainings for 120 professionals, the aim of the events being to enhance multidisciplinary cooperation and networking, to help professionals from legal, social and other adjacent areas to better understand victims needs and grant victims assistance tailored to their needs.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority [European Commission-Justice Programme]. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.
