Preparations for the 2017 VSE annual conference are entering the final stage. There are 35 days left to the conference and the conference programme is expanding and the workshop list is getting better and more interesting.
Programme updates
The conference will be opened by João Lázaro – President of Victim Support Europe and Maria McDonald BL– Victims Rights Alliance Founding Member and the openning speech will be given by Frances Fitzgerald TD Tánaiste and Minister for Justice & Equality.
Plenary sessions will start with panel 1 about Supporting victims across borders. There we will host Karen Joyce-McMahon, Deputy Assistant Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation Office for Victim Assistance, one Victim of Crime who has been victimised abroad, Mrs Tereza Sernets from Europol and Mark Castle, Chief Executive, Victim Support (UK).
Victim oriented criminal justice is our subject for the afternoon panel of the day 1. We still need some confirmations but on this panel we will host a Dutch prosecutor, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher from Bedfordshire Police and Helgard van Hullen from Weisser Ring Germany.
Second day will start with the third panel, Supporting vulnerable victims and helping them come forward, and our panelists will be Judith Thompson – Commissioner for victims and survivors, Northern Ireland and Paul Giannasi, Head of the Cross-Government Hate Crime Programme UK.
We are honored to host Tiina Astola, Director-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission – DG Justice, Levent Altan, Executive Directive, VSE and Sophie Linden, London Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for the 4th panel which is going to be about Supporting victims of terrorism.
Workshops
We have a brilliant line up of the workshops ready for the conference. There are six themes and 24 workshops for this year’s conference and they are scheduled as follows
Theme 1 – Developing Your support services
- Quality standards and Data Protection
- Assessing and monitoring the quality of victim services
- Advocacy and data protection. Hearing survivors voices while respecting their right to privacy.
- Knowledge exchange
- Building a knowledge exchance programme on victim support
- Referral victim – identifying organisations and developing procedures
- Towards development of a national system of victim support services in Serbia.
- Referral of victims between organisations
- Satisfaction surveys
- Funding – Selling your message
- A model for successfully selling your message to the corporate world
Theme 2 – Understanding and responding to victims needs
- Trauma and implications for victim support
- I can’t get it out of my head. Psychological impact of a traumatic event.
- The impact of trauma and its implications for victim support
- Homicide
- Psychological First Aid
- Psychological first aid- an evidenced based approch for assisting people post trauma.
- Protecting and supporting victims of online crime
- Online crime – a victim-oriented approach
- Ways of victims – access to Weisser ring services
- Road Traffic Victims
- Road crime is real crime and road victims have the same need for information, support and protection that is afforded to other victims of crime
Theme 3 – Supporting vulnerable victims, helping them come forward
- Trauma and implications for victim support
- Voice, recognition and support for victims of historical abuse
- A victims perspective on the states’ effort to rehabilitate victims of historical abuse
- Victims with intellectual disabilities
- Disability needs – reporting and getting people to come forward
- Sexual abuse impact on children with intellectual disability – integrative therapy
- Supporting Vulnerable Victims
- Tools to strengthen service provision for victims of FGM.
- Safe Reporting: Strategies to improve protection & justice for undocumented victims of crime
- Reaching and supporting specific groups of victims
- Helping victims of sexual abuse come forward
- Reaching out to and supporting youths
Theme 4 – Victims of terrorism
- Supporting victims of terrorism – planning, crisis and long term response
- Supporting victims of terrorism – planning, crisis response and long term. Expert panel discussion
- Supporting victims of terrorist attacks in France and Germany
- The attack of the berlin Christmas market and the consequences
- Supporting victims of the Nice terrorism attack
- Immediate psychosocial response after terrorist attacks
- Bruno Brito APAV
- Mary Fetchett, Voices of September 11
- Peer support for victims of terrorism
- Developing a peer support association
- V-Europe
- Supporting victims
Theme 5 – Supporting Victims of Hate Crimes
- Legislating for hate crimes
- The different legal systems and possible criminalisation of hate
- Protecting victims of hate crime – a rights based approach.
- Practical support for victims of hate crime
- Developing a practical approach to supporting victims of hate crime
- Developing a practical approach to supporting victims of hate crime
- Impacts on victims of Muslim hatred
- Online impacts of anti-muslim hatred on victims.
- Monitoring and responding to hate crime
- Improving responses to victims of hate crime through online training
- Monitoring and Responding to Hate Crime.
Theme 6 – Victim oriented Criminal Justice Systems
- Victims’Directive from a prosecutorial perspective
- Implementing the victims directive – challenges and opportunities from a prosecutorial perspective.
- Registered intermediaries and vulnerable victims
- The NI experience of assisting vulnerable individuals to give evidence
- Training of judges
- Expert panel discussion
- Compensation
- How to enforce Victim Support? Support and compensate a project life.
Follow links for detailed programme and workshop list
