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Anyone can become the victim of a crime.
From Beleek to Belfast, with 111,571 crimes recorded in Northern Ireland in 2022-23, any one of us could be impacted.
Before I was appointed as Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime in 2022, I spent over two decades working with victims of crime in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain.
Over the course of my career I have seen how crime creates vulnerability. It makes people feel powerless.
It is in that heightened state of vulnerability that victims of crime turn to the justice system for support and redress.
Sadly many of those I have spoken to have told me that, the very system that was meant to help them, ended up causing them more hurt.
The issues are varied and depend on the victim’s circumstances. From delay in dealing with cases, to the impact of the disclosure of private information including counselling notes, victims have told me that there is much that needs to be done.
But there is hope. Today marks European Victims of Crime Day 2024, an important time to remember that victims are not powerless, they have rights.
The Victim Charter, which guarantees victims of crime the right to be treated with dignity and respect, informed about available support, provided with information they need and given an opportunity for concerns to be addressed, has been on a statutory footing for almost ten years now.
We have an opportunity and an obligation to do more to promote and enforce those rights.
Many of us will travel through our lives without giving a second thought to our justice system and how it operates; without ever contemplating how much we rely on it to help ensure we live in a society where we can feel safe from harm. The reality is that each and every one of us rely on our justice system to be fit for purpose. Anyone of us can become a victim of crime, which means we all have a vested interest in creating a system that truly supports victims.
This is not just important for the Department of Justice, but for all government departments, all sections of society and all of us.