20 Amendments of Lívia JÁRÓKA related to 2023/0250(COD)
Amendment 82 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) In order to provide victims with seamless and modern means of exercising their rights, the Member States should make it possible forensure that victims tcan also communicate electronically with national competent authorities. Victims should enjoy the possibility of using electronic tools to receive information about their rights and about their case, report crimes, submit evidence where feasible, and to otherwise communicate with competent authorities and with support services through reliable and safe communication and information technologies. Victims should be able to choose the method of communication, and the Member States should provide for such communication and information technologies as an alternative to the standard methods of communication, without however replacing them completely. Those means of communication and information technologies should include, for example, websites that provide information in different languages, integrated chats, or emails and online working tools that respond to different communication needs, such as those based on age and disability.
Amendment 92 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) Crime reporting in the Union should be improved to fight impunity, avoid repeated victimisation and revictimisation and ensure safer societies. It is necessary to fight public insensitivity towards crime, by encouraging people who witness the crime to report crimes and assist victims and by creating safer environments for victims to report crimeVictims are sometimes not aware that they have been victims of a crime, but despite this, they still suffer harm; that is, for example, often the case for victims of online crime, gender-based violence and environmental crime. It is necessary to fight public insensitivity towards crime, by encouraging people who witness the crime to report crimes and assist victims and by creating safer environments for victims to report crime as well as by removing or reducing physical, administrative or legal barriers to reporting crimes. This is especially relevant, as victims least likely to report a crime to the police are usually those most in need of protection, being children, migrants, people with disabilities and victims of human trafficking. For victims who are irregular migrants in the Union, safe environment to report crime means reducing fear of return procedures being launched as a result of contacts with law enforcement authorities. The personal data of victims who are irregular migrants in the Union should not be transferred to the competent migration authorities at least until the completion of the first individual assessment as referred to in Article 22 of Directive 2012/29/EU. Reporting the crime and participating in criminal proceeding under Directive 2012/29/EU do not create any rights regarding the residence status of the victim, neither have any suspensive effect when determining their residence status. All vulnerable victims, such as child victims, victims living in closed settings including persons with disabilities, in particular those whose mobility is limited or who have been victims of crime because of their ethnic or religious affiliation, or older people living in residential institutions or victims in detention, who are in a situation of intimidation, or are otherwise dependent from the offender, or whose mobility is limitedrequire assistance by staff or authorities for all aspects of daily living, should be able to report crime in conditions that take into account their particular situation and in line with protocols specifically set up for this purpose. Victims in detention refer to persons housed in the following places: institutions where persons are deprived of liberty in execution of a sentence, including correctional facilities, jails and prisons as well as specialised detention facilities and detention centres for suspects and accused persons, special accommodation centres for applicants for international protection, pre-removal centres and other accommodation centres where applicants for and beneficiaries of international protection are housed. Special attention should also be paid to persons residing in other closed settings such as residential institutions, mental health, social and other care institutions.
Amendment 102 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) Targeted and integrated support services should be available to a broad range of victims with specific needs, including victims living in rural, sparsely populated and remote areas. Such victims may include not only victims of sexual violence, victims of gender-based violence, including victims of online forms of such crimes, and victims of domestic violence, but also victims of trafficking in human beings, victims of organised crimes, victims with disabilities, victims of exploitation, victims of hate speech and hate crime, victims of terrorism or victims of core international crimes. In response to the shortcomings identified in the evaluation, Member States should set upneed to create specific protocols that will organise the actions of specialist support services to comprehensively address the multiple specific needs of victims with specific needs. Such protocols should be set up in coordination and cooperation between law enforcement, prosecution authorities, judges, detentioncorrectional facility authorities, restorative justice services and victim support services.
Amendment 108 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 7 c (new)
Recital 7 c (new)
(7c) General support services are organisations specialised in supporting victims of crime which offer support to all victims of crime. Those services may include services tailored to specific groups or offer specific types of services. In parallel, specialist support services are offered to particular groups of victims, based on the type of crime or personal characteristics. Central cooperation and coordination of all organisations and services providing support services to victims is crucial to ensure that appropriate victim support services are available to all categories of victims on a reasonably equal basis. Therefore, general and specialist victim support services need to operate in a coordinated manner.
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) To avoid serious consequences of victimisation in early age, that may negatively affect entire victims’ life, it is crucial to ensure that all child victims receive the highest standard of support and protection. Most vulnerable child victims, including child victims of sexual abuse, child victims of trafficking in human beings and child victims who have otherwise been particularly affected by the crime due to the gravity of crime or to their particular circumstances, such as children of victims who have been killed due to violence against women or domestic violence, should benefit from the targeted and integrated support and protection services that includes coordinated and cooperated approach of judicial and social services within the samerelevant premises. Such services should be provided in a dedicated space. To ensure that the child victim is effectively protected in cases where a crime involves the parent or the holder of parental responsibility, or there is a conflict of interest between the child and the holder of parental responsibility, a provision has been added to ensure that in cases such as reporting of a crime, medical or forensic interviews, referral to support services or psychological support, as well as administrative and legal support, among others, these acts should not be conditional upon the consent of the holder of parental responsibility, always taking into account the best interests of the child.
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) For victims to sense that justice is done and to be able to defend their interest, it is important that they are present and able to actively participate in the criminal proceedings. That is why all victims in the Union, independently of their status in the criminal proceeding, which is established by the national law, should have a right to an effective remedy under national law in the event of a breach of their rights under this Directive. In addition, all victims in the Union, independently of their status in the criminal proceeding, should have a right to request a review of decisions that were taken during court proceedings and affect them directly. Such decisions should include at least decisions on interpretation during court hearings and decisions on, special protection measures available to victims with special protection needs and physical protection measures for victims. The procedural rules under which victims may request a review of such decisions taken during court proceedings should be determined by national law which should provide for the necessary guarantees that such a possibility of revision would not disproportionally prolong the criminal proceeding. Active participation in criminal proceedings and access to an effective remedy require that victims are duly updated on the state of play and significant developments in the criminal proceedings.
Amendment 134 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) All victims should be assessed in a timely, adequate, efficient and proportionate manner. It is essential to ensure that victims receive the support and protection that correspond to their individual needs. The individual assessment of victims’ needs of support and protection should be done in stages. When assessing the victim’s protection and support needs, the primary concern should lie in safeguarding the victim’s safety and providing tailored support, taking into account, among other matters, the individual circumstances of the victim. Within the first stage, all victims should be assessed from the first contact with the competent authorities to ensure that the most vulnerable victims are identified at the very early stages of the proceeding. As of the next stages, victims who need such enhanced assessment should be assessed by victim support services including psychologists. Such services are best placed to assess the state of victims’ well- being. The individual assessment should also take into account the situation of the perpetrator, who may have a history of violence, be in a possession of arms or abusing drugs and as such pose higher risks for victims. The individual assessment of victims’ needs should also include the assessment of victims’ needs of support, not only of protection. It is essential to identify victims who are in need of special support, so a targeted support such as prolonged free of charge psychological aid is provided to those who need it.
Amendment 139 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 11 b (new)
Recital 11 b (new)
(11b) Member States should take the necessary measures to prevent legal and social impunity of perpetrators of acts of terrorism, as this represents a significant obstacle for the recovery and protection of victims. Member States should take measures to criminalise the glorification, promotion or misrepresentation of a specific act of terrorism, as it humiliates the victims and causes secondary victimisation by damaging victims’ dignity and recovery. Member States should forbid tributes to those found guilty of terrorist activities by a final judgment and should pay special attention to victims where they can suffer harassment or fear that they might be attacked again by the social entourage of the aggressors.
Amendment 145 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) Victims cannot effectively benefit from their rights to information, to support and protection in accordance with their individual needs if they are faced with the national justice schemes that lack cooperation and coordination among those who come into contact with victims. Without close cooperation and coordination of the national law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary, restorative services, compensation services and victim support services, it is difficult for victims to effectively execute their rights under Directive 2012/29/EU. Other authorities, such as healthcare, education and social services, as well as civil society organisations, are encouraged to be part of this cooperation and coordination. This is particularly valid in relation to child victims.
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 13 b (new)
Recital 13 b (new)
(13b) Officials who are likely to come into personal contact with victims should have access to and receive sufficient and appropriate training. Training for competent authorities should be effective, state of the art, interdisciplinary and multi-agency, and should take advantage of new technologies for enhancing engagement and interaction. It should be delivered in cooperation with non- governmental actors including victims’ associations and civil society organisations. In addition to general victims’ rights training for competent authorities, there should be dedicated training programmes on dealing with specific categories of victims. Mutual training and exchange of good practices among national authorities, including judicial and law enforcement authorities, and victim support organisations should also be promoted to ensure better support and protection of victims as well as coordination of involved institutions. Training should be gender-, child- and trauma-sensitive, aim to avoid revictimisation and develop, among other skills, empathic communication and active listening. The adoption of specific guidelines for law enforcement officers should also be considered a good practice.
Amendment 153 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) National protocols are essential to ensure that victims receive information in a consistent manner about their rights and about their case and that victims are adequately assessed to enable them to receive the support and protection that corresponds to each victims’ individual needs that change in time. National protocols are essential tools to achieve well-coordinated individual assessments, avoid revictimisation and enhance the coordination and cooperation among competent authorities and relevant stakeholders in victims’ protection. Protocols should be established by legislative measures in a way that corresponds best to national legal orders and the organisation of justice in the Member States. This should regulate the actions on provision of information to victims, facilitating crime reporting for the most vulnerable victims, including those in detention and the individual assessment of victims’ needs. The legislative measures setting up the protocols should specify essential elements necessary for the processing of data including, the recipients of the personal data and the categories of data that will be processed in the context of operation of the protocols. The protocols should provide for general instructions on how to deal with services and actions under Directive 2012/29/EU in a comprehensive manner without however dealing with individual cases.
Amendment 159 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) The collection of accurate and coherent data, including both qualitative and quantitative data, and the timely publication of collected data and statistics are fundamental to ensure full knowledge on the rights of victims of crime within the Union and to monitor the implementation of this Directive. The statistics should include data relevant to the application of national procedures on victims of crime, including at least the number and type of reported crimes and the number, age, sex, gender and disability, if any, of the victim, and the type of the offence and the nature of the relationship between the victim and the offender. The information should include information on whether victims have suffered a crime due to a bias or discriminatory motive. Introducing a requirement for Member States to collect and report to the Commission data on the application of national procedures on victims of crime every three years in a harmonised way is expected to constitute a relevant step to ensure the adoption of data-informed policies and strategies. The three-year reporting of Member States should be harmonised to ensure better comparability of data. To this end, Member States should have a synchronised timeline for reporting the data collected under Directive 2012/29/EU. The Fundamental Rights Agency should continue to assist the European Commission and Member States in the collection, production, analysis and dissemination of statistics on victims of crime and in reportingand in the reporting of information on how victims have accessed the rights set out in this Directive. For the purpose of the analysis of the aggregated data, the budget of the Fundamental Rights Agency should be adequately adapted.
Amendment 164 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18 d (new)
Recital 18 d (new)
(18d) Member States should record, collect and transmit data on offline and online gender-based violence, including violence against women and domestic violence, as well as hate speech and hate crimes.
Amendment 204 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 5a - paragraph 1
Article 5a - paragraph 1
(1) Member States shall ensure that victims can report criminal offences to the competent authorities through easily accessible, user friendlysafe, understandable and user friendly reporting mechanisms, using information and communication technologies. Such possibility shall include submission of evidence where feasible. (This amendment applies to all of the legislative text examined; its adoption will necessitate (appropriate) technical adjustments throughout the entire text.)
Amendment 217 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 5a – paragraph 3
Article 5a – paragraph 3
(3) Member States shall ensure that victims can effectively report crimes committed in detencorrectional facilities. Deten and other closed settings. Correctional facilities shall include in addition to correctional institutions depriving liberty, such as maximum-security prisons, category C prisons, jails, detention centres and holding cells for suspects and accused, specialised detention facilities for applicants of international protection and pre-removal centres, and accommodation centres where applicants and beneficiaries of international protection are located. Other closed settings shall include mental health and other social care institutions, such as orphanages and retirement homes. (This amendment applies throughout the text. Its adoption will necessitate (appropriate) technical adjustments throughout the entire text.)
Amendment 283 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 4 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 4 – point b
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 9 – paragraph 3 – point b
Article 9 – paragraph 3 – point b
(b) targeted and integrated support, including trauma support and, counselling, for victims with specific needs, such as victims of sexual violence, victims of gender-based violence, including violence against women and domestic violence covered by Directive (EU) …/… of the European Parliament and of the Council64 [on combating violence against women and domestic violence], victims of trafficking in human beings, victims of organised crimes, and victims with disabilities, victims of exploitation, victims of hate crime, victims of terrorism, victims of core international crimes. _________________ 64 Directive (EU) …/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence (OJ …).’; (This amendment applies to all of the legislative text examined; its adoption will necessitate (appropriate) technical adjustments throughout the entire text.)
Amendment 388 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 10 – point d
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 10 – point d
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 22 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2
Article 22 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2
In this regard, victims of terrorism, organised crime, human trafficking, gender-based violence, including violence against women and domestic violence, sexual violence, exploitationincluding child sexual abuse, exploitation, hate speech or hate crime, victims of core international crime and victims with disabilities shall be duly considered. Particular attention shall be paid to victims who fall under more than one of those categories.’; and the online forms of those types of violence.’; (This amendment applies throughout the text. Adopting it will necessitate corresponding changes throughout.)
Amendment 417 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 13 a (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 13 a (new)
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 25
Article 25
(13a) Article 25 is amended as follows: ‘Article 25 Training of practitioners 1. Member States shall ensure that officials likely to come into contact with victims, such as police officers and court staff, receive both general and specialist training to a level appropriate to their contact with victims to increase their awareness of the needs of victims and to enable them to recognise victims and deal with them in an impartial, non- discriminatory, respectful and professional manner. 1a. In order to ensure comprehensive support and protection to victims, Member States shall also consider the development of practical guidelines to help translate the obligations for assessing victims’ protection and support needs into practical steps for competent authorities, such as law enforcement authorities. 2. Without prejudice to judicial independence and differences in the organisation of the judiciary across the Union, Member States shall request that those responsible for the training of judges and prosecutors involved in criminal proceedings make available both general and specialist training to increase the awareness of judges and prosecutors of the needs of victims and to treat victims in a manner that is trauma-sensitive, gender-sensitive, child-sensitive and sensitive to the victims’ various social and ethnic backgrounds, avoiding revictimisation. 3. With due respect for the independence of the legal profession, Member States shall recommend that those responsible for the training of lawyers make available both general and specialist training to increase the awareness of lawyers of the needs of victims. 4. Through their public services or by funding victim support organisations, Member States shall encourage initiatives enabling those providing victim support and restorative justice services to receive adequate training to a level appropriate to their contact with victims and observe professional standards to ensure such services are provided in an impartial, respectful and professional manner. 5. In accordance with the duties involved, and the nature and level of contact the practitioner has with victims, training shall cover general and specialist training, and shall aim to enable the practitioner to recognise victims, to understand the needs of victims as well as national law and procedures in relation to victims’ rights, to avoid revictimisation, and to treat them in a respectful, professional and non-discriminatory manner. 6. Training referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall include specific guidance on coordinated multi-agency cooperation, in accordance with Article 26a, allowing for a comprehensive, efficient and appropriate handling of referrals among the different competent authorities. 7. Member States shall encourage the development of interdisciplinary training among different authorities who are likely to come in contact with victims, where relevant with the cooperation of non- governmental actors, to enhance cooperation and coordination among authorities. 8. Training for competent authorities who are in contact with victims to respond to the specific needs of victims of cybercrime, including hate speech and online forms of violence against women or child sexual abuse, shall be promoted by Member States, with the support of the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group.’
Amendment 439 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 14
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 14
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 26a – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 26a – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Member States shall establish and implement specific protocols on the organisation of services and actions under this Directive by the competent authorities and other persons coming in contact with victims. The protocols shall be drawn up in coordination and cooperation between law enforcement, prosecution authorities, judges, detention authorcorrectional facilities, restorative justice services and victim support services. The specific protocols shall aim as a minimum at ensuring that: (This amendment applies throughout the text. Adopting it will necessitate corresponding changes throughout.)
Amendment 446 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 14
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point 14
Directive 2012/29/EU
Article 26a – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 26a – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) victims who are in detention including jails, detention centrcorrectional facilities and holding cells for suspects and accused, as well as specialised detention facilities for applicants of international protection and pre-removal centres or in other institutions, including accommodation centers where applicants and beneficiaries of international protection are located:, as well as other people deprived of liberty, including persons in mental health and other social and care institutions: (This amendment applies throughout the text. Adopting it will necessitate corresponding changes throughout.)